Earlier this month, the United Nations (UN) and Chaminade University co-hosted the 19th Global Network Conference during which representatives from the CIFAL Global Network discussed ways in which capacity building through inclusion of local community leaders and experts could help address the multiple interlinked crises the world faces, in particular climate change.

This three-day conference came on the heels of the UN’s COP 27 Climate Change Summit held last month in Egypt, in which 200 countries met to battle climate change.

These discussions are taking place in a global environment where we face a global energy crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and post-pandemic inflationary oil and gas prices. Continually rising global temperatures are consequential, with drought and devastating wildfires in the United States, extreme weather conditions across the world, and impacts on global food production while our world population continues to increase.

Our Pacific region is no less vulnerable to climate change. The impacts of global warming and rising sea levels significantly affect Hawaii and Pacific Island nations and territories. Low-lying atoll nations are gradually becoming inundated and uninhabitable, with salt water intrusion impacting fresh water supplies, sanitation and food production in some places. Temperature changes, coastal run-off pollution from the built environment, and nutrient pollution are also damaging coral reef ecosystems and harming the marine life that inhabit them.

All of this has propelled Hawaii to become a global leader in studying climate change and finding solutions that include using indigenous knowledge and practices along with new technologies. Hawaii has been an amazing leader in trying to resolve this issue, with significant work and studies being done by scientists, communities and agencies statewide. A sharing of ideas and solutions with the rest of the world will benefit all in dealing with this dilemma.

Earlier this year, Chaminade and UN launched a new Pacific region training and research center to provide leadership development opportunities to tackle these urgent global issues. The university’s Centre International de Formation des Autorités et Leaders (CIFAL) Honolulu is the first and only one of 24 global centers to represent the Pacific Islands region under the auspices of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

The Chaminade training center works with UN experts and local stakeholders to develop targeted education and training around key UN Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action, advocating for the oceans, food and energy sustainability, reducing poverty, ensuring clean water, and tending to human health and well-being.

A complementary effort to the CIFAL is a groundbreaking $10 million, five-year grant award from the National Science Foundation, which will support the development of a new Alliance Supporting Pacific Impact through Computational Excellence (ALL-SPICE). ALL-SPICE will focus on the application of data analytics to solve critical sustainability issues and promote sustainable development across the Pacific region. The program will also focus on workforce development, providing opportunities for skills building in data science to meet employer needs in this high-demand field.

Despite the challenging hurdles our world faces, some substantial progress has been made on a national level. With Congress’ Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Joe Biden, nearly $370 billion in federal funding and resources have been earmarked for clean energy and climate change mitigation initiatives. This is an unprecedented level of support from the U.S. federal government to wean off our overdependence on fossil fuels and transition to more sustainable energy sources.

So when we look back at 2022, will we be able to say it was when our nation and world took substantial action on climate change? Hopefully, that answer is yes. But it will take a concerted effort by all of us — especially those here in Hawaii and the Pacific Island nations, where we may be among the most vulnerable to this looming crisis.

Nikhil Seth, the United Nations’ assistant secretary-general, attended the recent conference here; Lance Askildson is Chaminade University’s provost and chair of the UN’s CIFAL Honolulu Center.