Samoan climate activist at COP26 says her country 'won't be the last' to drown

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Island nations suffering the effects of climate change are a "canary in the coal mine" for the rest of the world, says Brianna Fruean.

Fruean is a Samoan climate justice activist and a member of the Pacific Climate Warriors delegation at this year's United Nations climate summit (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. 

The Conference of Parties (COP), as it's known, meets every year and is the global decision-making body set up in the early 1990s to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements.

• Have questions about COP26 or climate science, policy or politics? Email us: ask@cbc.ca. Your input helps inform our coverage.

Fruean addressed world leaders at COP26 on Monday. Here is part of Fruean's conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off. 

Can you just give us a picture of how climate change has altered your country?

[During] Cyclone Gita ... I saw the floods come up. I saw the little girls walking across the floods with the loaves of bread on their heads, smiling, because we have resilient people.

I've seen that impact, but I've also seen the resilience. I've seen people rebuild, constantly in this state of just rebuilding our homes, rebuilding our communities. And that's the reality of living in front line communities, is that we feel the impact, but also we have to be adapting.

That's what Pacific Island people are. We're survivors, and we've been surviving the climate crisis. But there's only so much that we can take.

And so what message do you want to take on behalf of other island nations in the Pacific? What message are you bringing to Glasgow?

Really, the message I'm bringing to Glasgow is that, 1) We are not drowning; we are fighting. And, 2) If we're able to save the Pacific, we can save the world.

I think there's a misconception that climate change means [that] Pacific islands will drown, and that's it. That once we're gone, everyone else will be safe. But, no. We may be the first, but we won't be the last. And so we are that canary in the coal mine, warning the rest of the world of what's to come. And I think that more people should be scared.

You spoke to world leaders yesterday ... and one of the things you said is: "You wield the weapons that can save us or sell us out for profit and power." What are some specific interventions that you would like to see those powerful world leaders put into place?

[What] I would need to see ... is lowering emissions, keeping fossil fuels in the ground and making that just transition to renewable energy. 

It's an easy choice to make in a lot of our eyes, but a choice that not a lot of our big emitting countries have been able to make. And I think these targets that are stretched out ...[are] not enough. We need to be pulling our net-zero targets closer. We need to be moving faster, moving together. And really just admitting how far behind we are. I think that's really the first step. I hope our leaders are going to be discussing and holding each other accountable that they haven't been doing enough, and they need to be doing more.

We heard other leaders, other people from island nations, put out the call that they need [to keep global warming below 1.5 C] to stay alive…. How likely is it that these delegates are even going to get close to that?

On the trajectory that we're on, the science is saying that we're heading towards 1.5 C quicker than ever, and so we need to be remembering this language and putting it forward.

It's also not lost on me that there's very few Pacific island delegates that even have access to COP this year. You know, if we look back at the Paris Agreement in COP21, it was really the Micronesian leaders that pushed for 1.5. They started the campaign, "1.5 to stay alive."

Why has it been more limited for island nation delegates to get access to this conference?

The obvious answer is COVID. A lot of our island nations have been COVID free. Samoa, my island, we have been very strict on borders because we just can't afford to have COVID in our islands.

It's so hard to continuously try and convince people that we deserve to exist, that we deserve to have a planet. So what more can we do?- Brianna Fuean, Pacific Climate Warriors 

The people you're addressing — the ones who did get there, leaders of powerful countries whose interests are economic — they are interested in jobs and prosperity for their nations. So how can you convince them that they should care about your nation?

I've been thinking about that a lot, especially since I was given the opportunity to speak at the opening ceremony. I only had two minutes.

And I thought: The best I can do is tell my truth, give a little bit of my culture, and see where that gets me. 

But I feel like I can only just be honest with where I'm at. And I feel like it's the same with a lot of young people, is that it's so hard to continuously try and convince people that we deserve to exist, that we deserve to have a planet. So what more can we do?

I thought about telling my vulnerable truth and giving them that pain and that sorrow. But I thought they don't deserve it. We've been giving them the pain and the tears for years, and they haven't responded. And so I think that collectively we have to be doing more. We have to be giving the love, the light, but also giving that pressure and that power that only a movement can give.

And I'm thankful for all those who are protesting outside of COP26, putting pressure on the government and really showing that there is power with people. And I think that that's how we can get them to listen, is showing that at the end of the day, they're human and they need human votes to be in power.

Is it possible, and do you worry, that some of these powerful forces might just see island nations like Samoa as the price they're willing to pay to not have to sacrifice what's needed, not have to change, in order to stop what we all know is coming?

I really believe in the young people of these powerful nations ... and I believe in their allyship enough that they won't let that happen, that they won't let their leaders do that to us.

I think that's where our power can come from in this movement, is solidarity and being able to stick up for those that may be in another country on the other side of the planet. 

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Chloe Shantz-Hilkes. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.