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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 'Q' for Queensland & Queenstown: COP31 Türkiye Brief
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Recorded right after Australia's surprise 2-0 World Cup win over Türkiye, Heidi sat down with Selen İnal — founder and editor of the COP31 Türkiye Brief (cop31tr.com) — for a wide-ranging conversation that covers everything from waste and electrification to women in climate leadership and what makes Turkish coffee so special.
Selen is a Turkish engineer, entrepreneur and climate communicator who has attended four COPs and built an independent, volunteer-run platform to bring technical expertise and diverse voices into the COP conversation. Her portal — free to publish in for anyone with 10+ years of experience in energy transition or climate change — is fast becoming one of the most rigorous sources of COP31 commentary outside the formal negotiating rooms.
In this episode they cover:
🔋 Electrification — the 35% electrification target announced at SB62 in Bonn, why coupling electrification with phasing out fossil fuels is non-negotiable, and why the Socceroos' "just score more goals" strategy might be a metaphor for the energy transition
♻️ Zero Waste Forum in Istanbul — what happened when two thousand participants packed a plenary room under a ceiling of ocean projections, why methane from organic waste is one of the most underestimated climate problems, and why copy-pasting European circular economy solutions into developing countries doesn't work
🌍 Waste and the global south — the uncomfortable conversation at the forum about developed countries exporting their waste problems to less developed ones
👩 Women in climate leadership — why Sally Higgins as Australia's youth climate champion matters, why three of the five current UN Secretary-General candidates are women, and what having a woman in that role for the first time in history could mean
🤝 Turkey and Australia — two countries whose destinies are suddenly intertwined through a shared COP presidency, a World Cup match and a growing desire to actually fix this thing
🔗 Follow the COP31 Türkiye Brief: cop31tr.com | LinkedIn: COP31 Türkiye Brief
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