Hon Mona Ainu'u, Minister For Natural Resources, Niue

Laura: Minister Ainu'u, thank you so much for your time. Why did you want to be involved in this Summit? What's the importance of it?

Minister Ainu'u: Oh my God. Why not? I mean, this is something that when I got the invitation, and I so appreciate what the Minister has been doing over the last couple of years I've known her, and I have been following her, not a stalker or anything. Just, what we're trying to do back home is so important to us.

But we also want to reach out to our partners. So, when we talk about Positive Summit, we talk a lot, a lot of what we receive when we go to, you know, platforms where we voice what we are doing, our concerns, our challenges. It always seems so negative. It always seems like there's no ending.

So, this is the first ever that I feel, I have goosebumps when I when I saw it. And I thought, Positive Summit, this is what we need because there's so many challenges in the world and especially for us in the Pacific. And surely something good is going to come out of this positive energy that we're going to.

I wanted to come and share our positive story, which is something that we continue to talk about and want others to replicate or want others to learn about because it's doable. What we've done, we've gone through all the processes of establishing this as a nature based financial instrument. So, yeah, beautiful. I was looking forward to coming.

Laura: Well, we're so happy to have you here, and I think it has been, you're right, you talked about the goosebumps you saw when you saw just the title, I think there's been so much positivity in the room and optimism about how this target can be achieved.

Do you have a greater sense of optimism after being here today, speaking to all the stakeholders in the room, hearing from the stakeholders on stage, specifically for the Pacific, I should say too.

Minister Ainu'u: I think one of the best things that I found when we first arrived was during the welcoming there was the private sector, the business community that was also willing to contribute to, you know, the betterment of the planet, but also just having good practices.

We team as governments have normally worked within ourselves, you know policies, governance, what is interesting to the government.

Sure, we speak to the private sector. We, you know, there's an expectation that they will feel the responsibility to join. But when I came here and heard that so many businesses have signed up to do better, just to be accountable and contribute to such a, important topic or agenda for us, it's great.

But in coupled with that, we have the communities, the Indigenous People. That is something that in the Pacific we have been trying to, I guess, establish.

But it's very difficult when your priorities as a government, your priorities as a private sector or a business are so totally different. So, I was really happy to see that, that's a positive for me.

Because when we go out to a lot of speaking appointments, we see, you know, we bring our own interests, the others bring the interest on the side. But this one, you know, encourage everybody to be on the same page. And that's a great thing.

Laura: walking out of this Summit as well. Is there anything specific that you thought that is particularly relevant to the Pacific as well that will help you achieve these goals more easily? Because often in the national conversation, the global conversation, we speak about climate change and climate change action. But this, as you say, is more on the positive side.

Minister Ainu'u: I think one of the things have been very difficult for us in the Pacific, especially small administrations like ours, it's accessibility to finance. Hence why we had to ensure that we establish or find a product that fits us, but find something to help ourselves be sustainable without not putting all our eggs in that basket of the, you know, donors.

So, what I wanted to make sure that from these conversations here that we are able to say, 'hey, we want to be your partner', you know, we want to be real and come to the table and find a better way forward, because that's the hardest for us. Because, you know, there's always announcements of huge amounts of funds, like billions of dollars, pledged by countries, big countries, but not committed.

And we find it so difficult, we spend a lot of our time trying to access, but it's very difficult. So, so far, I managed to speak to quite a lot of businesses and organisations here that have shown that interest, and actually speaking the same language. And that's important to us, people to be true if they don't want to, you know, if they are not interested, they will tell you. And I know business people, its either yes or no.

Laura: Minister, that's so interesting because you're right, we do see these big blanket announcements of hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars for action, but it's here at this Summit, we have the people, the innovators, the businesses that actually need to fill that very big gap, don't they.

So, has that helped fill a gap for you today, meeting some of those businesses, innovators, those thinkers, the NGOs?

Minister Ainu'u: For me, as a Minister, we need to have officials negotiate all these, you know, conversations. But here I'm able to approach and people can approach me and talk one on one. That's really important to begin with. Getting that interest on, you know, somebody else outside of the bilaterals or the diplomatic relationships that we have.

So just having that in itself, and I'm very happy to say that a couple of people have decided to purchase or to sponsor what we have set in place as a conservation financial instrument, to allow us to measure and value that ocean space that we have, because it's a huge undertaking to commit 20 years to close off an area with so many risks.

So, I'm really happy to say that I actually got some real good positive responses. And they are talking to our team, which is something if it's just one, I'm grateful. If it's two, I'm even more excited and I'm sure there'll be a lot more coming.

Laura: So not just inspiring, but actually productive over the last 2 days.

Minister Ainu'u: Absolutely. So that's a positive for us.

Laura: Just finally, Minister, if there was one message that you'd want to leave today about this Global Nature Positive Summit, what would it be? A message from you, but also the message you got back from the people speaking here?

Minister Ainu'u: I love that It's positive. Absolutely loved it. You know, this is one language, because we speak so many different dialects in the region.

But that word positive means a lot to me because I've been involved with so many conversations that has ended up with me not being positive, going home, but, you know, telling my 13-year-old that I didn't achieve. It gets emotional when you think about your people.

Laura: Why do you get, what's made you emotional?

Minister Ainu'u: Because over the years we've been going to a lot of international space to speak but at the end of the day, reality for us is nothing is happening and for young people.

You know, I have taken my child to the sea since she was 3. And when she was nine, there was a campaign at her school campaigning to bring awareness to themselves and us in the international space on what climate has done to our islands.

And I'm taking her and she's seeing a lot of the changes. You know, the food sources that we used to get. It's no longer available because of the impacts of cyclones, high seas.

So, I take her down and she said, 'mum, what happened to what we used to get?' And I said, well, you know, big, the big countries haven't changed the way of living and creating a lot of these issues, that's warming up the sea. So, you know, in that case, it's killing off a lot of the corals, the seafood.

And she said, well, 'if you go to these meetings all the time, why didn't you tell them to come, come and see, and maybe they'll stop'. You know, as a mother who wants to fix everything, that you can't fix this. So basically, it's not just her, her cousins, her sister, I mean, her cousins and aunties, and, you know, we're always asking the same questions. What else can you do.

So, coming to these places that we're very optimistic that something's going to happen, but that positive language is really what we hold on to as hope. That something will eventually happen. And then she doesn't have to ask me again why, why, why.

Laura: What will you tell her after coming home from this Summit?

Minister Ainu'u: Well, I already messaged her. She was really happy that, you know, she always see me as going really, really far. Like to Dubai, to Egypt, to Europe to talk about our situation back home.

She was really excited that she said, there's a lot of things that I hear about Australia. So maybe because you always talk about the Minister, maybe she'll let you, you know, get some good benefits.

She's really old for her age, I think, because we speak this every day and the experience. So, when I spoke to her, she said, I'm very proud of you. So, yeah.

Laura: that's always what you want to hear as a mother.

Minister Ainu'u: Yeah. When you leave them for a couple of weeks at a time or a month, you want them to feel that I'm doing something good for them because it's not for this generation, but them and their kids and our young that are following behind us.

Laura: Well Minister, it's a pleasure to talk to you.

Minister Ainu'u: I'm sorry.

Laura: Never apologise for emotion. Absolutely, that's what this Positive Summit is all about, I think, a bit of emotional intelligence, too.

Minister Ainu'u: Well, you know that when they first, and I'm sorry I wanted to, when I walked in yesterday to the welcoming and when we sat there and the first sound and the images of whales came out and I thought that I was back home because this is our reality because we can't go to sleep because they always singing, and you know, and something on top of the water.

The dogs are barking at them and just made me feel that this there is the reason I came here, because of them, because of every living being that deserves to be living in our ocean. Yeah. So got to do better.

Laura: Minister, thank you.

Minister Ainu'u: Thank you so much.