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Bula COP31!
Bula COP31 is a podcast for anyone wanting to understand what it means for Australia and the Türkiye to co-host COP31 in 2026, and why this moment is influential in the UNFCCC process. Australia will be putting the Pacific Islands at the forefront of the climate negotiations to ensure adaptation and infrastructure investments flow to the region.
Your hosts are Heidi Dumesich and Jack Whelan.
Jack is a proud boomer who started his sustainability career long before it was considered ‘cool’. His experience spans the earliest COPs and reaches across business, industry, government, development agencies, NGOs, and the UN. He’s worked with the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development; and across Asia-Pacific with the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility, Asian Development Bank, and World Bank. Jack was nominated by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the design team that established the IRIS initiative, supporting climate- and disaster-resilient infrastructure in Small Island Developing States — work that sits at the heart of Pacific climate priorities.
Heidi Dumesich is a millennial environmental scientist focused on implementing practical solutions. She’s the seasoned podcaster behind Life on Planet A, and currently a Sustainability Manager at Ventia, leading an Infrastructure Sustainability Council rating for a major road project. Heidi brings a fresh, grounded perspective on climate action and how sustainability plays out across communities and sectors.
Bula COP31 explores what really happens behind the scenes of a COP — with a special focus on how Pacific leadership, values, and voices shape the global climate agenda. Through candid conversations with stakeholders across Pacific governments, Australian agencies, industry, civil society, youth, and community groups, we unpack how climate diplomacy in our region is driven by relationships, resilience, and shared responsibility.
Whether you're a policymaker, business leader, activist, Pacific climate champion, or simply COP-curious, this podcast is your guide to getting the most out of COP31 — and understanding how it can deliver for the Blue Pacific Continent.
Tune in, get engaged, and say Bula COP31!
Bula COP31!
Episode ‘I’ for Ipswich: COP31 on the brink with Mara Bún
In this episode ‘I’ for Ipswich, on G’day COP31! (or will it be renamed ‘I’ for Istanbul?) we are joined by Mara Bún from the Australia-Brazil Chamber of Commerce, refreshed after a rest day at the start of the second week of COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Among all the important issues being addressed is the BIG question that hangs in the balance - the choice of Türkiye or Australia as the host country for COP31 in 2026? Mara Bún navigates us through the labyrinth in the COP, sharing her insights and personal encounters from the heart of the Blue (Bluey?) and Green Zones in crowded, hot, steamy Belém.
Mara helped to set up an extraordinary impromptu press conference, right at the nexus between the Turkish and Australian pavilions, when representatives of Australian First Nations, businesses, civil society, youth and investors expressed their support for the Adelaide COP31 bid. With a steady hand holding the camera, Mara posted on Linked In “Cometh the hour, cometh the people” - which resulted in the story being covered in the Australian Financial Review, Bloomberg, Carbon Pulse, CNBC Brazil, Politico, AP and Reneweconomy - https://lnkd.in/gSc8HvBU
Richie Merzian, head of the Clean Energy Investor Group – moderated the line up of speakers from Australia, including Professor Anne Poelina, Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, Tennant Reed and we include some edited highlights – so listen to the end of the episode! You can listen to the full press conference here.
Thanks Mara for the chat on Episode ‘I’ for Ipswich – from Belém on G’day COP31!
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
04:40 COP31 update
14:04 Inside COP30
19:48 Unilateral trade measures debate
25:24 Press conference about COP31
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