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Ocean, Islands, Futures - Loss and Damage Part 2

Tracks
Ocean, Islands, Futures
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
3:45 PM - 5:45 PM
Rakaia Room (hybrid)

Speaker

Dr Shankar Neeraj
Disaster Management Consultant
Tonkin + Taylor

Addressing unavoidable climate impacts: Designing Loss and Damage projects for Small Island Developing States

3:45 PM - 4:00 PM

Biography

Dr. Neeraj Shankar is a consultant at Tonkin + Taylor with over six years of experience in disaster management and climate adaptation. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, specializing in post-disaster reconstruction. His work focuses on climate resilience (including adaptation and Loss and Damage) in SIDS.
Mr Wayne King
Director
Climate Change Cook Islands

Pacific Voices: Linking Vulnerabilities, Resilience and the Realities of Loss and Damage

4:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Biography

Wayne King is the Director of Climate Change Office Cook Islands located in the Office of the Prime Minister, on Rarotonga, Cook Islands. He has been involved in climate change negotiations and issues since 1990. Wayne has worked at SPREP in Samoa, and at ADB in Manila in climate change policy and programmes.
Ms Cushla Loomb
Business Director - Climate Resilience
Beca

Pacific Voices: Linking Vulnerabilities, Resilience and the Realities of Loss and Damage

4:00 PM - 4:15 PM

Biography

Cushla is Beca's Business Director for Climate Risk and Resilience and a Technical Fellow of Climate Risk & Adaptation with over 20 years of experience in assessing the current and potential future impacts of climate change across NZ, Australia and the Pacific.
Glenn Finau

Loss and Damage in the Pacific: Problems, Prospects and Amplifying Pacific Leadership and Innovation

4:15 PM - 5:00 PM

Biography

Glenn Finau is an Indigenous Fijian and accounting scholar. His research examines the role of accounting and other calculative technologies in efforts to (dis)empower Indigenous communities’ management of natural resources. He is currently developing a methodology to assess Non-Economic Loss and Damage for Fiji’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
Johanna Gusman
Senior Lawyer
The Pacific Community

Loss and Damage in the Pacific: Problems, Prospects and Amplifying Pacific Leadership and Innovation

4:15 PM - 5:00 PM

Biography

Johanna Gusman is a legal scholar and Regional Advisor for Human Rights and Development at the Pacific Community. She worked with Pacific governments on submissions to the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change, and sits on the Pacific Island Forum’s subcommittee on sea-level rise and international law.
Prof John Handmer
Professor
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis / IIASA

Loss and Damage in the Pacific: Problems, Prospects and Amplifying Pacific Leadership and Innovation

4:15 PM - 5:00 PM

Biography

John Handmer is an Emeritus Professor with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, and at ANU in Canberra, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Social Science Academy, and works on justice in community safety and resilience for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.
Prof Rebecca Monson
Professor
Australian National University

Loss and Damage in the Pacific: Problems, Prospects and Amplifying Pacific Leadership and Innovation

4:15 PM - 5:00 PM

Biography

Rebecca Monson’s academic and applied policy work focuses on questions of law, society and environment in Australia and the Pacific. It includes the prize-winning book ’Gender, Property and Politics in the Pacific’ (Cambridge 2023) and Solomon Islands climate relocation guidelines, praised by Human Rights Watch as ‘the most rights-respecting in the world’. Glenn Finau is an Indigenous Fijian and accounting scholar. His research examines the role of accounting and other calculative technologies in efforts to (dis)empower Indigenous communities’ management of natural resources. He is currently developing a methodology to assess Non-Economic Loss and Damage for Fiji’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. Johanna Gusman is a legal scholar and Regional Advisor for Human Rights and Development at the Pacific Community. She worked with Pacific governments on submissions to the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change, and sits on the Pacific Island Forum’s subcommittee on sea-level rise and international law. John Handmer is an Emeritus Professor with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, and at ANU in Canberra, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Social Science Academy, and works on justice in community safety and resilience for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.
Viliamu Iese

Loss and Damage: Save the Pacific, Save the World

5:00 PM - 5:45 PM

Biography

Vili is Senior Research Fellow (Drought Resilience and Climate Studies) at the University of Melbourne. Vili has conducted research and published widely in the field of risk resilience in agriculture, food security, climate change loss and damage, and evaluation of adaptations and risk reduction actions in Pacific Island Countries.
Dr Tolu Muliaina
Lecturer
The University of The South Pacific

Loss and Damage: Save the Pacific, Save the World

5:00 PM - 5:45 PM

Biography

Mr Nasoni Roko
Finance and Administrator Officer
The University of The South Pacific

Loss and Damage: Save the Pacific, Save the World

5:00 PM - 5:45 PM

Biography

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