LocationsPacific youth step up with climate solutions as COP30 heads to the Amazon
November 10, 2025
When Audrey Natasha Lee Hang imagines the future of Samoa, she envisions children walking to school, breathing clean air, oceans that remain blue, and rainforests that remain evergreen. “Not many can imagine it,” she writes, “and soon maybe, not many will remember it.” But when she speaks, the vision feels tangible: children walking to school breathing clean air, oceans that stay blue, and rainforests that remain evergreen. “We, the youth, are in the driver’s seat on the road to a sustainable Samoa.”
Audrey, an early childhood teacher and youth advocate, is one of many young leaders across the Pacific who are developing local solutions to global challenges, including climate finance, green transportation, and youth participation, through UNDP-supported initiatives. Despite a $300 billion global shortfall in climate funding, Samoa made two bold commitments: transitioning to electric vehicles and empowering youth in climate action. “Although small islands like ours contribute little to global emissions,” Audrey said, “this was a powerful commitment to doing our part.”
Across the Pacific, young people like Audrey are not waiting for solutions. They are building them. Travel with us—figuratively—from Samoa to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu, and carry their voices to Belém, Brazil, at the heart of the Amazonia, where COP30 is taking place.
Audrey (left) leading a discussion on corporal punishment with other youth representatives from Avele College, Pesega College, and Chanel College in Samoa in Samoa during the 84th Extraordinary Outreach Session (CRC84) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in Samoa in March 2020.
Bougainville, Papua New Guinea: Lama’s First Step into Green Entrepreneurship
Lama Teffatu, 24, from Mortlock Island, a remote atoll in Bougainville. It takes nearly 24 hours by boat to reach her home from the capital. “Our gardens are disappearing; land erosion is worsening,” she says. “For years, I didn’t understand why this was happening.” That changed when she attended a Youth Empowerment Bootcamp on climate change and renewable energy. “The issue started to feel deeply personal. Like a fight for our homeland, for our daily survival, and for our future.”
The bootcamp provided Lama and others access to tools and training that rarely reach their islands. “Green jobs offer a powerful way to address two of our biggest challenges: climate change and unemployment,” she said. “I don’t have to wait for someone to bring opportunities to my island; I can create them.”
Timor-Leste: Palensia’s Path from Midwifery to Climate Advocacy
Climate advocacy and midwifery rarely intersect, but in Timor-Leste, they do. Palensia da Costa Silva never expected her work in maternal health to connect with climate action. But in a country where flash floods and poor sanitation threaten lives, especially those of pregnant women, the link became painfully clear.
“I have seen how climate change is not only about rising temperatures or extreme weather but also lost lives,” she says. “When roads are flooded, pregnant women can’t reach medical support in time. Sometimes, we lose them before we can help.”
Palensia joined the Local Conference of Youth and helped draft the National Youth Statement on Climate, now being presented thousands of miles away at COP30. “We try to make conscious choices in our daily lives—reducing waste, saving water, and protecting nature,” she said. Her journey reflects a growing movement of youth-led climate action rooted in lived experience.
Community Consultations on the Importance of Conserving Natural Resources in Bay Barrier Community, Southeast Pentecost.
Vanuatu: Joanna and Rony’s Entrepreneurial Journey
On Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, where roads are unreliable and electricity scarce, Joanna Wari and Rony Barang are building businesses from the soil up. Joanna works for the local government and is a conservation specialist. Rony is a kava farmer, taxi driver, and entrepreneur. Together, they are turning tradition into transformation.
“We wear multiple hats as members of the community,” Joanna says. “While our paths aren’t the same, we share one goal: to build something better.” Rony started his first kava garden in 2019 and used the earnings to open a store, drive a taxi, and raise livestock. “Entrepreneurship gave me a chance,” he said. “But here on Pentecost, the road isn’t easy.” Cultural pressures, lack of training, and fear of witchcraft make some youth afraid to start businesses. Still, Rony believes change begins with the mindset.
“When electricity from renewable energy arrives, I hope to start a fish business and guesthouse,” he said. “A green economy here starts with ideas that work for our people.”
These stories are not isolated. They reflect the kind of leadership UNDP is supporting across the Pacific. From youth driving sustainable transport in Samoa and renewable energy training in Papua New Guinea, to those championing health-focused climate advocacy in Timor-Leste and green entrepreneurship in Vanuatu, youth are leading with courage and creativity.
These efforts are part of a regional wave of youth-led climate action supported by the Pacific Green Transformation Project, under UNDP's Climate Promise and funded by the Government of Japan in collaboration with the Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform (YECAP). They are not just responding to climate change; they are rewriting the narrative.
As Audrey from Samoa put it, “Climate change demands collective responsibility. And we, the youth, are ready to lead.”
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