Grand Opening Plenary – From the Pacific Islands to the World

Climate crisis journalist and scholar with a focus on small islands, gender, environmental negotiations and human rights.

President David Kabua is the ninth President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. President Kabua has been representing Wotho Atoll since his first appointment in 2008. In his second term, he was given the portfolio as the Minister of Health and then later as the Minister of Internal Affairs. He was appointed Minister-in-Assistance-to-the-President in his third term.

During his early years, President Kabua had worked in several Public Service positions as a teacher aid in the Headstart Program for two years, a student liaison officer, General Manager for the Marshall Islands Development Authority (MIDA) under the Ministry of Resources and Development, 1996, and four years as the Consul General in Orange Country, California.

He has an extensive background in the private sector for more than ten years as a business owner.

President Kabua was born in Majuro and is the son of the first President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands Amata Kabua and First Lady Emlain Kabua. Upon completion of his studies at Xavier High School, 1971, in Chuuk, Federated States of Microneisa, President Kabua furthered his education at Hilo College and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Together with his wife, First Lady Ginger Shoniber Kabua, they have three children and one granddaughter.

James firmly believes that New Zealand can be an example to the world in transitioning to a high-value, clean-tech, post-carbon economy that works for everyone. He also believes that, right now, the world needs more such examples to follow and that those that can lead have a duty to do so.

Prior to becoming an MP, James had a successful career in management consulting, primarily in London, where he lived from 1998 to 2010. He has diverse experience working for large multinational organisations through to local start-ups, social enterprises and community organisations, across Europe, in New Zealand and around the world.

While completing a Master’s in sustainable development and business leadership at Bath University, James came to the realisation that the private sector alone wasn’t able to effect change at the speed and scale necessary to meet the challenge of climate change and that political change was also required.

He moved back to New Zealand to run for Parliament in 2010 and was elected in 2014, becoming Green Party Co-leader in 2015. In 2017 James led the Green Party into its first ever term in Government with Ministers and was appointed Minister for Climate Change, Statistics and Associate Minister for Finance.

In his first term, James guided the Zero Carbon Act through Parliament with unanimous support; reformed the Emissions Trading Scheme to cut pollution into the atmosphere; and established Green Investment Finance ltd., to stimulate investment in the low-carbon economy.

Now in his second term, and as Minister of Climate Change, James is focusing on specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport, energy and agricultural sectors. He also holds a new role as the Government’s Associate Minister for the Environment with responsibility for Biodiversity.

The Rt Hon Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park is the Minister for Pacific and the Environment at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). He was first appointed as a Minister of State in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and Defra on 13 February 2020.

He was previously Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and at the Department for International Development from 10 September 2019 to 13 February 2020 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and at the Department for International Development on 27 July 2019 and 10 September 2019.