Excerpt and Photo from bbc.com
The UN climate talks start haggling over how to protect the oceans on Saturday – and one woman will be closely watching.
Mervina Paueli, 25, has come to Dubai to negotiate a future for her home, Tuvalu – a group of low-lying Pacific islands.
We owe the oceans a lot – by absorbing heat, they protect us from the full cost of global warming.
If this summit agrees to slash fossil fuel use, oceans could be a big winner.
This is Mervina’s first COP summit – she was in the air for 24 hours, flying from Fiji to Hong Kong before finally landing here in the United Arab Emirates.
“We all have that umbilical cord attachment to our lands. Anything for my country is worth it,” she says.