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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 'N' for Nauru: COP31 with Fossil Versus Future
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Episode intro / context:
COP31 will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026 — but the Pacific is at the centre of it all. While Türkiye handles the logistics and operations of the conference, Australia will lead the negotiations. And crucially, the Pre-COP will be hosted right here in Fiji, supported by the Government of Australia. For us at Bula COP31, this is exactly what we've been advocating for: an unprecedented opportunity to bring the world to the Pacific, to witness climate impacts and solutions firsthand.
Episode description:
In this collaborative, cross-continental episode, we're joined by James and Daisy — hosts of Fossil Versus Future— for an intergenerational conversation about the COP process. Jack and Heidi sit down with James, who takes the hot seat to share what he's witnessed on the ground at previous COPs. How can the COP presidency shape outcomes? How does geopolitics drive climate diplomacy? And is it time for the process itself to be reformed?
Recommendations:
- Want to go deeper on the co-hosting arrangement between Australia and Türkiye? That's exactly what we unpack on Bula COP31 — give us a listen.
Advocates & Resources:
- Türkiye holds the formal COP31 Presidency, managing all operational and logistical requirements, with the conference and World Leaders Summit physically taking place in Antalya. But Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, will serve as President of Negotiations — a role with exclusive authority over the agenda, draft texts, and appointment of co-facilitators. This creative arrangement was designed to break a diplomatic deadlock that would otherwise have sent the conference to Bonn, Germany, and left the world without focused negotiation leadership for a year.
- An intergovernmental organisation giving voice to small island nations on the issues that threaten their very existence.
- BINGO (Business and Industry Non-Governmental Organizations) — the formal constituency representing business and industry observers within the UNFCCC process.
- Originally founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum, the Pacific Islands Forum is an 18-member intergovernmental body that unites the region to tackle its most pressing challenges — including the climate crisis.
- The Carbon War by Jeremy Leggett — A firsthand account of the climate negotiations and the relentless efforts of fossil fuel interests — the so-called "carbon club" — to derail them. Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the politics behind the process.
- The precautionary principle: the idea that when harm is plausible, we act — even before the science is complete. A principle the Pacific has long called on the world to apply.
- (2017) — Just weeks before hosting COP23, Fiji made history by issuing a sovereign green bond, raising FJD 100m (USD 50m) to fund climate mitigation and adaptation. Pacific leadership in action.
- (2018) — Talanoa is a Pacific tradition: inclusive, participatory, transparent dialogue. When Fiji held the COP23 Presidency, it brought Talanoa to the world stage — launching the Talanoa Dialogue to invite everyone into the conversation about climate solutions. That spirit lives on in everything we do at Bula COP31.
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