What are the issues threatening oceans in the Pacific?
04/12/22 • 22 min
The day before 80 countries meet in Palau to discuss ocean governance, Bertie talked to Dame Meg Taylor DBE about the changes the Pacific Elders' Voice are campaigning for, including pollution of plastics and nuclear waste, illegal and unsustainable fishing, and loss and damage.
Pacific Elders' Voice is a group of diplomats, academics, and creatives who work together to platform issues important to the future of the Pacific Islands. Meg Taylor's distinguished career includes serving as the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada (1989-1994), Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (1999-2014), and most recently, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (2014-2021). She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.
Further Reading:
- Read more about the Our Ocean Conference 2022
- Read the Pacific Elders' Voice Statement on Oceans
- 'UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks', The Guardian, 21 Mar 2022
- 'Nations commit to develop a legally binding agreement': press release announcing the proposed treaty on plastic pollution, with links to the full text.
- 'This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it's leaking', The Guardian, Fri 3 Jul 2015
- Follow Pacific Elders Voice here on Twitter, and here on Facebook.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.
The day before 80 countries meet in Palau to discuss ocean governance, Bertie talked to Dame Meg Taylor DBE about the changes the Pacific Elders' Voice are campaigning for, including pollution of plastics and nuclear waste, illegal and unsustainable fishing, and loss and damage.
Pacific Elders' Voice is a group of diplomats, academics, and creatives who work together to platform issues important to the future of the Pacific Islands. Meg Taylor's distinguished career includes serving as the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada (1989-1994), Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (1999-2014), and most recently, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (2014-2021). She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.
Further Reading:
- Read more about the Our Ocean Conference 2022
- Read the Pacific Elders' Voice Statement on Oceans
- 'UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks', The Guardian, 21 Mar 2022
- 'Nations commit to develop a legally binding agreement': press release announcing the proposed treaty on plastic pollution, with links to the full text.
- 'This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it's leaking', The Guardian, Fri 3 Jul 2015
- Follow Pacific Elders Voice here on Twitter, and here on Facebook.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.
Previous Episode
CCS: what are the right (and wrong) ways to do carbon capture and storage?
Dr. Howard Herzog is a pioneer of carbon capture and storage research, having studied it since 1989 in what is now called MIT's Energy Initiative. He was also a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC's 2005 Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, and he is author of the 2018 book Carbon Capture.
Bertie talked to Dr. Herzog about the different forms of CCS, issues around direct air capture's cost, why enhanced oil recovery and CCUS are not the way forward, and what policies need to be put in place to incentivise CCS deployment.
Further reading:
- Read Bertie's series of CCS long reads on Land and Climate:
- Publications by Dr. Herzog from recent years on CCS include:
- Hard-to-Abate Sectors: The role of industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS) in emission mitigation Applied Energy (2021).
- Assessment of CCS Technology in a Climate Mitigation Portfolio (CCS Assessment Phase 1 Report) MIT Joint Program Special Report (2019)
- Read Dr. Herzog's 2018 book Carbon Capture, part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.
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Despite drives to plant-based eating in the West, meat consumption is only going up and will not change any time soon. The other big methane emitters come from the power sector. Coal mining emits 52 million metric tons of methane per year, more than is emitted from either the oil sector, which emits 39 million tons, or the gas industry, which emits 45 million tons. So closing coal mines is the only viable alternative in tackling methane. Global methane emissions from the energy sector are about 70% higher than the amount national governments have officially reported. Methane reduction is critical.
Check out the methane hub to find out about how world leaders and businesses are looking to fulfil the 2030 methane pledge.
You can read more about Ember's work here.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.
The Land & Climate Podcast - What are the issues threatening oceans in the Pacific?
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to the Economy, Land and Climate Podcast. My name is Bertie Harrison-Broninski. I'm an assistant editor here at ELCI, and today I have the privilege of talking to Dame Meg Taylor, whose distinguished career includes serving as Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation, and most recently, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands
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