Spotlight on COP28: Flora Vano - Now is the Time to Stand with Pacific Climate Activists

It's that time of year again, when world leaders (along with marketers from brands, oil and gas industry lobbyists, celebs on their private jets) head to the UN climate conference to discuss what to do about greenhouse gas pollution and our warming world. Extreme weather! Rising sea levels! Phasing out fossil fuels! Wait, actually, maybe tone that last one down because it's a bit hard, and our mates in the extractive energy industry aren't keen ... okay, how about: Phasing down fossil fuels? That sounds more reasonable...

Luckily there are also voices of reason at these events.

It's time we listened more to them.

As a group of Pacific Climate Activists head to COP28 in Dubai to tell the world what it's really like to live on the front line of climate change in a low-lying island nation when one-in-100 year cyclones hit back to back, Clare sits down with Ni-Vanuatu woman activist Flora Vano, to hear about her work empowering women in the climate movement. Turns out it's going pretty well.

Flora is fab, and her message is one of hope and inspiration as well as hard truths. You need to hear her beautiful words about her connection to the oceans and what we can learn from Mother Nature. Plus she's a fashion fan. We start this conversation with the power of visual communications - Flora loves bright colours and often arrives at events with a statement bloom tucked behind her ear. But don't let that fool you into thinking she's not a serious player. She's travelling to COP28 with the demands of Vanuatu's 9,000-strong Women I Tok Tok Tugeta (women talking together) network, demanding gender equality and climate justice. Flora has a clear message to governments and industry: she wants them to start looking seriously at the losses faced by Pacific Island communities, and others, as a result of climate change they did not cause.

Check the shownotes on wardrobecrisis.com for links on how you can help Flora and her fellow activists at COP28, and for more info.

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