 Talofalava and greetings. I'm Salah Dr. George Carter, my research fellow and also the director of the Pacific Institute here at the Australian National University. And I'm Mark Howden. I'm the director of the ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions. And I'm also a vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Hello George. Thank you very much Mark. So early this week on Monday, we had the announcement and the distribution of the IPCC report, which has a particular focus on small states as well as Pacific islands. And I wanted to ask you about what are some of these results? Well, there are very clear evidence now that human activities through greenhouse gas emissions are affecting the global climate and our global oceans. And the effects are manyfold that apply to the Pacific. So obviously there's temperature increase, particularly temperature extremes. There's sea level rise, which is accelerating. We see an increase in the proportion of strong cyclones that category three, four and five cyclones. And we're seeing a range of impacts in terms of the oceans, which includes ocean acidification, so they're getting more acid, but also in places deoxygenation. So they're losing the oxygen, which enhances productivity. And of course, these happen not evenly around the world and some places are impacted more than others. And unfortunately, the Pacific is one of those places where there's a high degree of impact and particularly because of the nature of Pacific Island communities and their exposure to many of these factors. It's actually one of the more vulnerable places on earth. Now, I believe the report also touches on particular sectors and specific impacts such as marine water and food. I wonder if you could do a deep dive a little bit into giving insight on what it means for the Pacific. Well, looking at those three sectors, if we look, say, at health first, one of the key messages is that these changes, particularly exposure to extreme events and sea level rise, is likely to impact disproportionately on health infrastructure, so it's hospitals and clinics. And so many of those are actually located close to the coast and means that if you have an extreme event, it actually means people can't get the medical care that they need during the event and after the event. So there's that type of impact on infrastructure. And then, of course, there's the impact on human health directly through things like heat stress or increased diseases from insect carriers, but also through foodborne diseases. As the temperature goes up, it's easier for food to spoil. And if we look at the marine systems, particularly coral, and we know that coral is very sensitive to temperature increases. And that's likely to increase dramatically as climate change goes on impacting on productivity of coral reefs and island fisheries. But it's not just immediately around the islands, it's also out into the ocean. So changes in ocean currents and changes in those production conditions are likely to impact both the average productivity, but the location of particularly productive species like tuna. And lastly, if we look at food and food insecurity, what we're likely to see is increased strength of El Niño. So the variability between the wet years and the dry years from El Niño and La Niña is likely to increase as a result of climate change. So the variability of food production is likely to increase. So those periods where islands are short of locally produced food is likely to become more frequent. So there's a food availability element there, and that means there's potentially necessary imports of food may increase, which of course has implications for the economics of island nations. So that's focusing on the problems, but we also need to focus on the solution. So obviously one of the solutions is cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions. But Pacific islands don't produce many greenhouse gases, but they are very subject to those impacts that I just mentioned. So we need to adapt to those impacts. So given all of those focus on the problems, we need to focus on the solutions. So tell us about some of the successful adaptation options that you've seen implemented in the Pacific. So as you pointed, I highly point that the Pacific produces less than 0.5% of greenhouse gas emissions. And so the focus has always been on adaptation. And this has been a key issue that has been advocated by leaders, by academics, civil society, private sector, as where the priority is for the Pacific in terms of the work of adaptation. And there have been great success stories in part through partnership with overseas development partners. But at the same time, we've seen more and more cases of communities incorporating traditional knowledge as well as indigenous approaches to adaptation by incorporating environmental and nature-based solutions in their thinking, in their work. So that it is part and parcel of rebuilding and building back better in terms of impacts such as natural disasters or cyclones. How do they use some of these traditional ways of consultation in terms of allowing communities to think about relocation that incorporates culture into that thinking? So there's a lot of lessons that we are learning and we are capturing through our research of adaptation in the Pacific that is also useful for other communities and other regions around the world. So Mark, you've been with IPCC for over 30 years. With that vast experience, can you tell us what is IPCC and also what to look forward to in the report in detail? Thanks George. The IPCC is perhaps the longest running and biggest science policy experiment ever. What it is is a partnership between governments and the science community to synthesize the science about climate change and to put it into a policy relevant format. And really importantly, Pacific Island nations have a role in the IPCC which goes from start to finish. At the start it's about deciding what the scope is of the IPCC reports. There's approaches that governments from the Pacific can influence all the way along in the report production and the reporting of that and in the approval process. And of course Pacific Island researchers write papers and do the research and do the analysis that feeds into the IPCC reports. So it's actually more relevant over time to the Pacific Islands because it has more and more Pacific Island research involved in it. You know Mark, what you just said is something that I've heard over and over in the years reiterated by government leaders and researchers of the importance of Pacific academics but also officials to be involved in the process of IPCC. If we want the world to listen to us, we need to advocate but also advocate through the research. And this is something that I know that A&U as well as other universities in the region are constantly thinking about and actively thinking forward. So what you just said is something that's very true and something that we should look forward to. Now to wrap it up, what is next for the IPCC roll-up for the year? Well in a month's time we have the release of the IPCC working group on emission reduction that's called mitigation. And later in the year in October we've got the release of the synthesis report for the IPCC which pulls together the six main reports across this cycle. And so when we get to that synthesis report component, I think that will be where there's a really strong public interest because the public isn't just interested in adaptation or mitigation, it's how do you put these things together.