Last week was the infamous New York Climate Week! Mana Pacific was represented by its Policy and Project Developer, Sierra Jackovics, who joined up with their partners at Blue Planet Alliance to drive their shared mission of accelerating the Pacific’s transition to renewable energy forward.
To recap, participating in the youth-led Climate Strike powerfully kicked off Day 1. Alongside thousands of students, New York residents, and individuals from around the world, Mana Pacific participated in the Climate Strike with the team from Blue Planet Alliance and Brooklyn Story Lab.
Parading from Foley Square across the Brooklyn Bridge to Borough Hall, this strike demanded an end to the fossil fuel era and united people from around the world. To effectively transition to renewable energy, funders, polluters, and leaders must be held accountable to their commitments and investments in climate and renewables. Among the main demands, activists called for the G7 countries and others to deliver on their climate finance promises.
The rest of the week was filled with a multitude of events, including the Summit of the Future, the UNGA 79 Science Summit, Foreign Policy’s Energy Forum, Australian First Nations + Pacific Island Leaders = Climate Success, and Blue Planet Alliance’s annual Island Partnership Dinner.
Monday’s Summit of the Future, “Capacity Building for Intergenerational Collaboration and SIDS Youth,” brought together youth leaders from islands across the Pacific, Caribbean, and Indian Ocean regions. It showcased that young generations are the ones taking charge and must be at the forefront of the climate conversation, rather than being an afterthought.
The event also highlighted the work of Blue Planet Alliance in advocating for 100% renewable energy, as well as Mana Pacific’s work in being an implementation partner. In addition to its main hosts, PeaceBoat US and Blue Planet Alliance, the co-sponsors included the Indian Ocean Commission as well as the UN Permanent Missions of Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, and Kiribati.
Wednesday’s UNGA 79 Science Summit, also called “Islands Shaping the Future,” focused on the innovative strategies that islands are taking on climate and their renewable energy transitions. It featured speakers such as the new Permanent Representative of Tonga to the United Nations, Viliami Va’inga Tone as well as Tonga’s Speaker of Parliament and one of Mana Pacific’s project partners, His Lordship Fakafānua.
The rest of the week was equally action-packed, hosting multiple events about our global energy transition as well as the role of the Pacific Islands specifically. First, Foreign Policy’s annual Energy Forum hosted prominent speakers such as Ali Zaidi, Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor at The White House. This all-day forum discussed global investments in renewable energy technologies and infrastructure, how to accelerate the energy transition, and the need to expedite climate finance to projects in developing countries including in the Asia-Pacific region.
Second, the “Australian First Nations + Pacific Island Leaders = Climate Success” event focused in on the Pacific region specifically, hosting speakers representing Australia’s First Nation population as well as those from the Pacific, including His Lordship Fakafānua, who made another appearance. In anticipation of COP29 and COP31 potentially being hosted by Australia and the Pacific, each leader shared their visions of the progress that needs to happen between now and then.
The week ended with Blue Planet Alliance’s annual Island Partnership Dinner, uniting each of the organization’s partners across the Pacific and Caribbean regions working to accelerate the transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045.
Overall, it was another incredible New York Climate Week that Mana Pacific shared with their partner, Blue Planet Alliance! Alongside the UN General Assembly events, the private and nonprofit sectors are working hard to push the transition to renewable energy forward. Mana Pacific is focused on continuing to execute their solar and battery storage projects in the Pacific region, as advocacy can only take us so far. At the end of the day, it is getting projects that generate affordable, clean energy in the ground that will help break our world’s reliance on fossil fuels and turn back the clock on climate change.
Photo credits: Jerome Pennington
