Holomui ki mu’a: Pacific catalytic action at IMO proves the power of small

John Fatuimoana Kautoke¹, John Taukave^1,2, Morgan Wairiu³, Maria Sahib¹, Atina Schutz¹, Aileen Sefeti¹, Peter Nuttall^1,4, Alison Newell¹ and Pierre-Jean Bordahandy¹

¹Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport, Majuro
²University of Hawai’i at Manoa
³Solomon Islands National University
⁴University of Fiji

Abstract

In the space of a decade, a small alliance of high ambition PSIDS has demonstrated their capacity to engineer catalytic action within a sector many described as ‘too hard to abate’. That this small grouping from the world’s smallest of micro-states has been able to exert the leverage it has is remarkable. But it has been no random undertaking. In this paper we follow the development of a successful indigenous ‘recipe’ for catalytic action from its genesis in the challenge of the Tongan philosopher Hau’ofa in the 1990’s to the conventional narrative of the Pacific as a post-colonial region of weak, dependent and remote micro-states. Hau’ofa instead recast selfreliance and confidence in the certain knowledge of an ancient but living Oceania of Large Ocean States as a shield to the trap of a dependency spiral. Such thinking, re-emulated by future Pacific academics and politicians in the furnaces of successive COPs and related engagements can be traced through the call of the late Tony de Brum at IMO in 2015 for targets commensurate with a 1.5°C agenda and progressive introduction of cutting-edge policy design on GHG emissions pricing and concepts of equitable transition by a next generation of Pacific diplomacy. Seen through the lens of past learning, the development of the Pacific’s catalytic action at IMO appears as the disciplined application of a learned process rather than a random event. In this paper we consider the thesis that catalytic action is essential to creating paradigm level change and that action is the result of the application of small but powerful interventions stemming from careful understanding of past knowledge.

Keywords: International shipping; revenue disbursement; Just and Equitable Transition; GHG emissions pricing