Fiji's Sivendra Michael was just 1 year old when Pacific island nations first sought help in 1991 through planned U.N. climate negotiations to deal with expected "loss and damage" from rising seas and other climate change impacts.
This year, the 32-year-old, a disaster risk management and development expert who just earned his Ph.D., will be pushing to finally make that help a reality as a formal negotiator on "loss and damage" and other issues for his country at COP27 in Egypt.
"They are negotiating our future and it's only right for us to be at the table," said Michael, one of 60 newly trained youth from 27 countries acting as full-fledged climate negotiators at the U.N. talks this year.