This event explores the path forward for integrating Pacific wisdoms and leadership into the Global Ethical Stocktake—a values-based complement to the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake. The Pacific region has done the heavy lifting for global climate policy under the UNFCCC, including in the Ocean-Climate Nexus, loss and damage fund, and calls for fossil fuel phaseout. These issues are essential to forefront in the Global Ethical Stocktake initiative, a values and frontline community-centered complement to the Global Stocktake. Established in 2025 under the leadership of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Global Ethical Stocktake invited youth, elders, Indigenous leaders, artists, philosophers, scientists and faith representatives to reflect on the deeper values that should guide climate action. The Oceania Dialogue, one of six regional gatherings, centered Pacific voices, assessing climate progress through the lens of ethics and complementing the Paris Agreement's Global Stocktake. Broadly, the GES dialogues called for: recognizing ethics, culture, and spirituality as key catalysts of change; centering justice, equity, intergenerational responsibility, and relational worldviews; moving beyond GDP as a well-being indicator; and strengthening institutional transparency and accountability. This side event will explore what ethically-grounded climate action means for the Pacific—drawing on the Oceania Dialogue's findings to examine the Ocean-Climate Nexus, loss and damage, and the moral urgency of the 1.5°C goal for Small Island Developing States, as emphasized in the ICJ’s 2025 Advisory Opinion.

Venue

Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion

Speakers

Pacific Elders Representative (Mahendra Kumar, Tommy Remengasau, Robert Underwood or Dame Meg Taylor), Pacific Elders’ Voice, Wanjira Mathai, World Resources Institute, Participant from the Oceania GES Dialogue, Rev. James Bhagwan, Pacific Council of Churches (tbc), Samira Siddique, Center for Earth Ethics - Moderator