Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 8, 1 August 2014 — CLIMATE CHANGE AMBASSADOR: Aloha+ Challenge should be touted on global stage [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLIMATE CHANGE AMBASSADOR: Aloha+ Challenge should be touted on global stage

By Lisa Asato The climate change ambassador from Seychelles urged Hawai'i to tout the recently launched statewide Aloha+ Challenge at a high-level international conference on islands in Samoa in September.

"You've got something of value. It's the Aloha+ Challenge. You've got to run with it," said Ronald Jumeau, Seychelles ambassador for climate change and small island developing state issues, speaking at free talk story at the Hawai'i Conservation Conference on July 16. A group from Hawai'i will be attending the Samoa talks as part of the U.S. delegation, ensuring access to closed-door meetings that nonprofit organizations and nongovernmental organizations would not have access to, Jumeau said. The United Nations International Conference on Small Island

Developing States is Hawai'i's opportunity to share its island insight on sustainability and climate change before the international community reaches a new agreement on climate change in Paris in December 2015, he said. "Now is the time for you to step up and declare yourselves, talk about yourselves, who you are, not

as proud peoples, not as a U.S. state, but as the islanders that you are," he said at. "It's your time to make your voices heard. To have an imprint on that document that comes out. There's going to be a declaration by the world leaders, there's going to be a lot of side events about island partnerships in whieh Hawai'i will bring what you have to the table to share with the rest of the world." Even though the Samoa conferenee will focus on islands, "big countries" like the U.S., China and India will attend, he said. With XI GL0BAL STAGE ON PAGE 25

At right, Ronald Jumeau, Seychelles ambassador for climate change and small island developing state issues, met with audience members after his talk at the Hawai'i Convention Center. - Photo: Lisa Asato

GL0BAL STAGE

Continued from page 5 almost 200 countries and only 40 independent islands worldwide, Jumeau said: "In Samoa, the islands in the island conference are going to be outnumbered vastly by countries whieh are not islands but think they know a thing or two about islands. This is why in Samoa, islands have to speak out as never before." Audrey Newman, senior adviser to Hawai'i Green Growth, told the audience that the U.S. State Department has "enthusiastically endorsed" the Aloha+ Challenge and asked Hawai'i's permission to include it in all their comments when they speak at the Samoa conference. "They want to talk about the Aloha+ Challenge as a really tangible example of what the U.S. is doing around island issues," she said. When Jumeau asked about the

Hawai'i delegation, Newman told the audience she will be going as well as state Department of Land andNatural Resources Chairperson WilliamAila and Jacqueline Kozak Thiel, Hawai'i's first statewide sustainability coordinator. Four people from the Polynesian Voyaging Society's World Wide Voyage are also attending as part of the Global Island Partnership delegation, including Nainoa Thompson and Mawae Morton, she said. Global Island Partnership, for whieh Jumeau serves as steering committee chair, is a group of island leaders from around the world that promotes action on conservation and sustainable livelihoods and catalyzes large-scale commitments. Hawai'i's recently launched Aloha+ Challenge was spurred by an invitation from Jumeau in September to join the Global Island Partnership. ■