 research of the East West Center and hosts of the East West Center Insights. The East West Center is a cutting-edge research and capacity building institution and we're based right here in Hawaii and our mission is to support a deeper understanding and greater connection between the East and the West. So every two weeks here on the show, which is on Tuesdays at 2 o'clock, I'll have a conversation with an East West Center expert or somebody from our global network about critical issues facing the Asia Pacific region. So check us out here at EastWestCenter.org. And today our guest is a good friend of mine, Celeste Connors, and she's Executive Director of Hawaii Green Growth, local 2030 hub and an East West Center senior adjunct fellow. Celeste has 20 years of experience working at the intersection of economic, environment, energy and international development policy. And before joining Hawaii Green Growth, she was also the CEO and co-founder of CDOTS Development. She previously served as Director for the Environment and Climate Change at the National Security Council and National Economic Council, where she helped shake President Obama's climate and energy policies. And then before that, she served as a U.S. diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Greece and Germany. And so today we're going to be talking about how islands are building back better after COVID-19 or during COVID-19 and how the local 2030 islands network is helping to facilitate those efforts. So, hi Celeste, thanks for joining us today. Aloha Karina, it's a pleasure being on the show. It's been ages, it's been about an hour since I saw you last night. True. Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to ask you all about your work today and let's just start off with talking about what we just talking about before we came on about the particular advantages that islands have in dealing with situations like COVID-19 and climate change and then what those advantages might be. Yeah, no, that's a that's an interesting question Karina because I think very often as islands we see the disadvantages first that we are vulnerable to catastrophic events and severe weather events, hurricane, cyclones and all of the above. But I think the focus on the positive is that as a result islanders are better equipped and in many cases more used to looking at long-term resiliency as an essential strategy. And I guess when we think about COVID to me it's inherently about disruption and it's about projecting forward to a potentially climate disrupted future. If we go back and look at what the science is telling us it's that we have really less than a decade at this point to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change by having sectoral change across the board and that's really going to require a lot of collaboration and partnerships and I think that's so you know one of the key points for me that's actually what I think islands do quite well is partnerships and collaboration and systems thinking and networks you know there's a lot of talk these days about a circular economy which to my mind is really an island economy and as we talked about earlier today I think islands in many cases have a thousand years of knowledge on systems thinking on ways to structure your economy or society your culture in a way that is mindful of resources resource availability and the communities in the you know from Ridge to Reef, Alcott to Mackay and the communities in between and so when we think about what other economies are now trying to do with the circular economy they can look to islands as models so while at this present moment you know without a doubt islands are certainly suffering because of the impacts of COVID it has to do with supply chain disruption because we still have a lot of these dependencies on imported energy imported food but I think at the end quite honestly the disruption to the tourism economy which is really hitting islands hard so at this present moment there is a lot of pain and there's a huge pain point Hawaii in particular has gone from having some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country to some of the highest almost overnight and that says a result of the COVID disruption but at the same time the cases have been lower than in other parts of the country and so what this means is that people are really trying to balance the need to get back to get back their livelihoods but to do so in a very thoughtful way so I think this is what we're seeing in Hawaii including the tourism economy right so we weren't many folks would agree that we weren't entirely on a sustainable pathway prior to COVID and so therefore our Hawaii tourism authority in their most recent strategic plan their five-year strategic plan had actually laid out a more I guess resilient pathway forward for the tourism economy one that focused on a better relationship between the visitor and the community one of collaboration and this was actually premised a lot on the aloha plus challenge goals and the need to look at that community component and balance ecosystem so all of this to say is that I think that while islanders are really hit hard by COVID when we look at stabilization recovery and resilience and the opportunity for the circular economy or an island economy an island world view to be a starlight for economic development and recovery I think islands are actually very well positioned I've loved the way you frame I think that's really empowering and and then in the Pacific in particular you know where there actually has been widespread success in terms of trying to address you know the more dire aspects of COVID-19 aka dying I mean they just I think right across the Pacific seven seven seven souls that we've lost and so in a way that does free us up to look at the sort of the acute issues surrounding employment and you mentioned the aloha plus challenge and the sustainability of the path that we were on in Hawaii before COVID-19 but before we get to that because I really want to drill down to that and I think it'd be helpful if we talked a little bit about what Hawaii green growth is exactly and then we'll slide right into the Hawaii plus challenge yeah absolutely I have a couple of slides to share in a minute but I would say what's exciting is Hawaii green growth is inherently well it's a network-based organization it's a group of partners that come together across sectors and it's a decade old Hawaii green growth is a community-driven partnership that actually emerged Karina following the last financial crisis in 2008 and that's what's interesting is a lot of people think because it's green it's more on the environment side but actually it's an it's an economic recovery strategy so I was actually in the White House during last period and really what we were working on with the other developed economies through the OECD was a green growth recovery and at the same time the UN had a green economy report that is actually what led to the Rio plus 20 conference which then from which emerged the sustainable development goals but the green growth strategy was also adopted at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting which took place in Honolulu in 2011 and that's when a group of enlightened leaders got together and said hey we should get on a green growth pathway and that's how Hawaii green growth emerged and the early founders of that group as I said included folks from civil society and government and business and youth involvement as well so it's actually quite dynamic and exciting so what this so where we are right now is we feel like we've been working on a green growth economic recovery for the last 10 years so I think we're well positioned and that is really sort of illustrated in the aloha plus challenge so actually if we do go to look at this first slide I think it's really colorful which is why I like to show it but what you have here is the aloha plus challenge is Hawaii's statewide sustainability framework launched in 2014 with our state leadership the counties our legislative leaders both the house and the senate and our again our civil study partners businesses and others and so what you have here are six goals including you know clean energy and natural resource management green workforce education smart sustainable communities and these are time-bound greenness so these aloha plus challenge goals are to be achieved by the year 2030 I had the other wheel on there because for those who might not recognize those those are the sustainable development goals and those are 17 goals also to be achieved by the year 2030 that all member states of the united nations agreed to in the year 2015 so you'll notice that Hawaii's sustainability framework was launched a year prior to the UN goals and that is actually critically important because right now the the world is rallied around these big goals 17 goals including climate change reducing or eliminating poverty energy efficiency renewable energy energy access the whole gambit and the whole idea behind these goals is that progress in one goal requires progress in the other goals in order to be successful so that's that integrated approach which is exactly why islands and an island model can and can be leading the world in this the aloha plus challenge goals how did we even get here you and I were in a panel a couple hours ago which is really exciting with some of our great technology leaders from bill and like linda gates foundation and shift seven and google former google microsoft leaders and basically what it all came down to is community i think megan smith said you know the digital platform was like a pencil it you know it's it's not the thing itself it's it's what it communicates and how you actually are getting that information and what also came up was we measure what matters and so what we holy green growth did is we had we went to the community to find out what mattered to the community and together determine the metrics and indicators over three years statewide multi-sector collaborative process and those are the metrics so with six goals related metrics and indicators actually rolling up to the entire sdg framework and and that's actually what was determined if you i think it might be slide two what what's exciting is this might be the the dashboard actually no let me that slide two i think actually demonstrates what i just said this is who how do you make this possible it's the community it's the network and this is literally just a snapshot of our network right you can see there the diversity of the partners and these partners are committed through four different working groups that we constantly iterate to make sure that we're making progress that we're continuing to measure what matters that we're identifying gaps looking for opportunities to drive action and so the third slide i'll just highlight here is the aloha plus dashboard now this is where you can find all the data the information it's not a static process we're constantly iterating on these goals for example hopefully soon we'll have online new gender metrics and vahikapuna metrics and indicators and i think it's it's not actually the hgg staff that determines what goes on there it's part of a collaborative process to make sure that we have the right stakeholders in the room to do that and that is on the state.gov website so it really shows some real commitment transparency and accountability for all of us collectively to be achieving those goals um so i think that's that's um back yeah please sorry just to back up just though to really understand the network uh obviously we've always really wanted to understand this because i get like how private public partnership works in theory but what i really like about you what you've done is you've tried to put a bit of a structure around it you know because when we first started talking about it it did seem very organic i'm like how are you going to ever get any more momentum so you've got like four working groups and so what is what do they do that like all the different organizations come together in four groups and what are what are those i remember there's a policy and legislation one but perhaps if you can walk us through it yeah no absolutely and you know again this is probably me as a former diplomat and former um and a c person it's that the process matters but not so that it undermines the outcome right we have process in place to drive outcome and so the working groups are exactly that right um it's allowing our members to select the areas that they're most passionate and interested and relate most to their current work and so one is a policy and legislative working group we have a local global next gen next generation of working group uh we have the measures working group and we're also really excited to be working with our business leaders we convene the sustainability business forum and it's a group of 24 Hawaii-based CEOs that last year were invited to join the global compact and that's the group of over 9 000 companies globally that have signed on to the sustainable development goals and these 10 principles so it's really exciting and this group the business leader group they're really pioneering market-based mechanisms to address climate challenges including a carbon offset pilot they are looking at sustainable tourism and how we can have a more sustainable sector um and they're also looking at what they can commit to now today to improve their efficiency and resilience and sustainability through the greener business initiative further Karina our business leaders they want to be tracked on the dashboard and so they are disclosing information about what they're doing which is really extraordinary so how do we make this happen our focus is to move the middle and that's part of it so in other words what we do is we we are constantly working to make sure that it is truly a partnership that we are actually having the conversation because i think in my mind um we often know what we need to be doing we often have a technology solution i think the challenges um and sometimes and very often involves tradeoffs and partly where we sometimes melt down is where we don't have a conversation about the tradeoffs and we're perceived to cut corners in the conversation and the dialogue and so i think what we do with the goals and the dashboard it really makes these tradeoffs explicit and sometimes as a community can recognize there are things that are not perfect in this approach however we're moving forward with this because it has these broader benefits and that's really how policy can move forward is collectively so there is there is a function to that we convene over 50 meetings a year between all of our working groups and our business forum and now we're really part of the local 2030 island network which i'll share more about as well so yeah but before you get there um you know you talked about i mean it's what's embarrassing to me it's a network within a network within a network and then you put a whole structure around it so so um there is actually action and then right at the top of that tree is the is the sustainable development goals the SDGs which you were one of the negotiators for and it might be helpful just to talk a little bit about that and how it's a powerful way green growth docks on to that and then maybe um uh just talk about how it relates to the millennium development goals is there any skeptics out there yes you know i i mean i love that you've mentioned the millennium development goals you know that really from the earth summit set the development agenda for 15 years from 2000s to 2015 and you know the world bank and imf and un rallied around these goals um that were very development traditionally development focused on child and maternal health and education um poverty and what happened you know with Rio plus 20 i think there was this idea that you know something was missing or that we needed to look at this other pillar right so you the three pillars of this the three legs of a stool right are economic social and environmental um and for me i think all of this is amplified and really successful through culture is really what we see in Hawaii um is the real opportunity and so what happened is when we were thinking about the mbgs millennium development goals expiring what would emerge next and it was an entirely clear even after rio plus 20 the big meeting but what did emerge are the sustainable development goals and again that's looking at economic social environmental issues across the board it includes climate change and all of these issues that we talked about now having worked at the macro level as you indicated sometimes on climate issues as well as energy and sustainability when you work on these large platforms sometimes you're left wondering how and when do they get implemented because the action is critically important did it work and yeah exactly right and i think this is exactly the point i think you're implying is that the un recognizes this as well and they recognize that the solutions are going to come from the local level and that's why actually they have looked to identify bright spots um you know and actually before i before i even continue to you know that reminds me i'm really honored to sit on the board of the global island partnership and it's important to say while green growth and the local plus challenge emerged um it's probably best for me to go back to the genealogy of hawaii green growth it was informed by the green growth strategy but it has a much deeper and longer genealogy in hawaii with malama hawaii which was really informed by late senator kenneth rounds 1973 speech on the malama ethic and that was really this i think that he predicted the sdgs in this speech because it's the lens through which we should see if we should proceed with certain activity is through these island values of malama and kuleana and aloha and i think that was critically important for hgg moving forward i think the aloha plus challenge and back to your first question about islands was inspired actually by other islanders um you had the micronesia challenge right that you're familiar with the micronesia challenge was so extraordinary and it actually inspired the caribbean challenge and then we had a ambassador from seychelles ambassador ronnie jimmo come to hoi and challenge hawaii to be a model for sustainability and then you had the aloha plus challenge so what it is is this ecosystem of islanders inspiring other islanders and working together um which i think is really the exciting part of the the local 2030 island network and the opportunity there so um i yeah well that's not that now no because um we've got um we've got about 10 minutes and that's a great segue into um what we're all doing together in the in the local 2030 island network you know maybe you know what it is who are the key drivers you and kate and um and uh and just some of the really like inspiring but also very practical um tools and vehicles um you and we have been exploring via that network in this covid era yeah and we're you know we're delighted to be partnering with pidp on this as well in ukraine so this is the local 2030 island network so it's going to actually if you wanted to go to slide four if i can remember the slide order here of our hubs yeah so so basically this ties into your last question how does this all plug in so essentially what happened is upon realizing you know the united nations that we really need to look at local solutions they identified hawaii as a model for sustainability based on what we were already doing and so that's also a really important point it was not acknowledging hawaii any aspirations to sign on to the sdgs rather it was the commitment that we had to the aloha plus challenge to our local model and how that could be a locally and culturally appropriate model in other places um and so as part of us agreeing uh and yet you and officials come to hawaii to formally launch the local 2030 hub um as part of that they said how could we work how could hawaii help uh work with other island economies to also um help shape their locally and culturally appropriate and relevant goals and so with the global island partnership together we launched the local 2030 island network at the un general assembly last year many folks in our network were there which was exciting from the counties and some of our civil society partners as well as business partners so it was an exciting time and as part of this network it's really looking at these four principles of how do you have it's focused on the partnerships right and leadership it's also looking at how we track progress and hold ourselves collectively accountable and whatever format for us up there a little that's the aloha plus dashboard um and there's also the commitment to action right so how can we learn from each other hawaii is constantly learning from our other island partners and we hope that we can share some of the solutions that we're we're working on as well the common challenge that we face um now when we were setting this up korea COVID hit and we have an interim steering committee chaired by ambassador spencer thomas from granada we talked to spencer and decided rather than slow down our programming we probably should accelerate it because we wanted the conversation we needed the conversation with our island partners because we were all feeling that pain point with the disruption with disruption to tourism food security um other types of challenges that we were facing so what we did is we responded through a COVID platform and this has been the conversation that we've actually been having um with partners we've been convening about every two weeks uh we did a survey to actually find out what the priorities are and so we've been having a very robust dialogue and it's really exciting to see what other islanders are doing to basically manage during these difficult times yeah i mean it's exciting it's also really inspiring and just for me as as a punter um as part of that as part of that platform i think what was also really helpful was to hear um was just to hear the spread of ideas you know in in the pacific not all of them are immediately applicable but they will be applicable in the future and we talked about this this morning we're talking about innovation and technology and i made some comments about uh sort of the low penetration points like in the north pacific on average there's about 30 of the population using the internet in micronesia um but that's only today and uh you know last year the world bank um signed a really big deal with the federated sex micronesia and um you know by the time we get to 2040 you know they're likely to be up around 80 of that population and so you know even um you know for those of us uh chiming in to some of those discussions uh you know like they might seem far away in the future right now but maybe they're five years away or ten years away um and so i i've got a list here of some of the things that you were talking about um we've been talking about on the network um today we talked about data and innovation and um but you also talked about tourism right up and i know that that's a topic of incredible interest here and i just wondered if you could remember if that was six weeks ago but if you remembered any takeaways from that particular discussion yeah no i think look i think the issue with tourism is that it's it is part of our um economic strategy going forward for islands and Hawaii as well and it can be done in a way that again focuses on the relationships and the connection the relationship between the visitor uh and the resident and that can be a collaborative um partnership one that does focus on stewarding our resources um and one that actually does support and ultimately the tourism sector will change as a result of covid but it will be it can be a force for you know diversifying the economy and looking at regenerative tourism right which is actually achieving multiple benefits across different sectors um we've talked about our businesses you know a lot of our businesses are involved in the tourism economy and they view themselves as anchor institutions but also when we look at you know economic activity as far as hubs tourism brings in revenue through you know taxation but it also provides jobs across you know a diversity of sectors so i think tourism is going to be part of our mix going forward it's a question of how we do this again i think the Hawaii tourism authority five-year strategy really lays that out very well um and it was kind of interesting what we did i should note with the dashboard um is we actually ran a survey across our statewide network to look at what are the jobs that are available right now you know that are shovel ready off the shelf whether it's a farm to a school program that with additional support it could be scaled um you know fish pond management so what we did is we ran the survey we got over 350 responses Karina so we've identified over three like 9 000 jobs currently available across the state at you know around 585 million dollars we could actually put folks back to work it includes tourism it looks at tourism and other types of a diversified economy um what was interesting too going back to the panel was on the data and innovation and what we're seeing as COVID has forced us into practices um that include remote working right or remote school in the case of my kids right and my husband who's a teacher and what it has done is light on connectivity hey Celeste i've done a terrible job at cheering i've got one minute i've got my team saying hey we're going to go wrap it up i just really want to be yeah i just really wanted to hear you had to say but in the in the in the last 30 seconds um i i have really have to thank you and where can we find out more about this stuff yeah so i would go to the aloha plus challenge dashboard to look at the job survey our COVID response um that would be the most timely information i think we really got to get folks back to work that is going to help support a more resilient and equitable future for hawaii thanks Celeste always i always learn something talking to you and really appreciate you taking the time today we've become zoombeats uh and thanks everyone for joining us today and we're going to stick something on the um east west center website so you can find out exactly um those reasons that Celeste was just referring to and um see you next week aloha thanks so much Karina aloha