Climate Action and Power: The Purse Strings of Influence

In the late 1990s, I spent a total of 3 months each year in the Solomon Islands working with a renewable energy non-government organisation to support communities in building micro-hydro systems.

From Sydney, I would fly to Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, then navigate ferries and canoes to reach communities in the Western and Malaita provinces.

When passing through Honiara, I often stayed in the Kastom Gaden Association leaf house next door to the Zai Na Tina organic farm. At that time, it was owned and operated by Joini Tutua, an admired teacher, principal, politician, and pioneering organic farmer who has since passed away.

I remember having thought-provoking conversations with Joini, what Paolo Freire refers to as conscientization moments, while strolling through the organic gardens, gathering ripe sugar bananas along the way.

Our conversations often focused on globalisation, colonisation, and the troubling rise of multinational corporate neo-colonial marketing, which exploits the Global South and undermines local economies.

These forces were persuading Solomon Islanders to purchase commercial synthetic pesticides and fertilisers for food production, undermining their free and time-honoured Traditional Knowledges that have sustained food production for hundreds, if not thousands, of generations.

It was during one of these walks when Joini shared, “Whoever holds the purse holds the power.” It's these words – and a lot of the work and learning I was doing back then – that catapulted me on my social justice journey.

28 years later, in October 2024, I was packing my bags for Colombia to attend the Atlantic Fellows Climate Convening in Bogotá, followed by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, commonly referred to as COP16, in Cali.

Throughout this trip, I grappled with two recurring thoughts:

1. Joini's phrase of “whoever holds the purse holds the power.”
2. The disturbing fact that no country currently invests more in protecting nature than it spends on destroying it.
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Climate justice, from the Solomon Islands to Colombia

The Climate Convening in Bogotá, held in partnership with Dejusticia, brought together researchers, activists, policymakers, and implementers from across the globe, representing diverse lived experiences, cultures, and professional backgrounds.

We had come together to deepen fellowship and explore opportunities to amplify our collective action and shared responsibility around climate justice and a just transition.

For each of us, a just transition—moving towards sustainable practices in a fair and inclusive manner—looked different, shaped by our lived experiences.

As we shared our stories and expressions of climate justice, it became clear how this diversity of approaches and goals was influenced not only by our individual backgrounds but also by the various roles and sectors in which our work was taking place, including health, education, trade union movements, human rights, community development, and land rights.

Some of us were in positions of decision-making power, holding that metaphorical purse that Joini talked about at a crucial moment, while others were working at the coalface of climate-related impacts.

We reached a mutual understanding that the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue – it is a global phenomenon that impacts human health and equity.

Sergio Chapparro Hernandez, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and International Coordinator of Dejusticia, reflected, “In a global scenario fragmented and plagued by multiple crises, the dilemma is to cooperate under fairer conditions to address the climate emergency and other planetary crises or to go down a dangerous path that exacerbates conflicts and injustice.”

The need for a decolonised approach

It is widely recognised in the climate space that those who are most affected by the climate crisis are often not the ones contributing to it. For those who disproportionately suffer, an urgent decolonising approach is critical.

This approach must dismantle the existing power dynamics of Western-centric norms and decision-making, enabling culturally specific, place-based practices to flourish.

Solidarity beyond mere rhetoric is also crucial to a decolonising approach. Could shifts in mindset that reframe humans, nature, and all living beings as interconnected family, friends, and community help dismantle the extractive and alienating ways in which humans treat nature and its creatures?

One of the highlights of the Bogotá convening was hearing from Darío José Mejía Montalvo, former President of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). He emphasised that we are no longer in an era where alliances are voluntary; rather, they have become mandatory. He conveyed the idea that "your flourishing is my flourishing" and the importance of "valuing the value of nature to reform."

He noted that these concepts are not the typical Western-centric and dominant neoliberal economic and societal notions, but rather time-honoured Indigenous principles that have supported planetary health for time immemorial.

The role of Indigenous Knowledges in climate solutions

When I arrived in Cali for COP16, I was heartened to find that the critical role of Indigenous Knowledges in combating global warming and restoring nature was acknowledged and a recurring theme. This was especially significant at a United Nations conference that has historically preferenced Western approaches.

In attendance were Indigenous peoples from around the world, who consistently emphasised that their ways of being, knowing, and doing, drawing on thousands of years of collective, intergenerational knowledge and wisdom about living in harmony with nature, offer numerous solutions to the challenges posed by the climate crisis.

But these solutions require significant and unconstrained funding, "not peanuts," as Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, President of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, put it.

Given that Indigenous peoples care for 80% of the planet's remaining biodiversity, it seems obvious who should receive the greatest share of global climate funding. Indigenous peoples, however, are widely reported to receive less than 1–2% of this funding.

I was saddened by an Ecuadorian Elder who expressed that he feels like he’s on a boat, with the people steering it (the Global North) being drunk and incapable of navigating.

I was also struck by Joseph Itongwa from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who posed the question, "If we continue to harm planet Earth, we harm ourselves. Nature will save itself, but will we be around to witness it?"

Towards a sustainable world with no community left behind

If the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue, but a global phenomenon that impacts human health and equity, then our response must be equally comprehensive – weaving together environmental protection, social justice, and community wellbeing into every solution.

We must ensure that our path to sustainability uplifts all communities, particularly those who have historically borne the heaviest burdens of climate change and environmental degradation.

In the words of Dr Peter Gan, Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity and Bogotá comrade, we need to fight for a world where “no community is left behind in our collective journey towards planetary health and climate resilience.”

“We're not just fighting against climate change,” as Peter says. “We're fighting for a healthier, fairer, more sustainable world for all.”

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This article first appeared on the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity website.

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