Jessica Work

Even the word 'gender' on its own, without naming sexual and reproductive health specifically, lets SRHR slip out of the conversation. So, in every room I step into that talks about climate, I make sure to push for specifically SRHR out loud.

What's the most effective way young advocates can influence climate and reproductive justice policy?

Give us the space to meaningfully participate, not tokenistic involvement. We need to be included from the start, not brought in after the decisions have already been made and having to work within that boundary. Young people should be co-developing policies, co-leading strategies, and given the resources and space to do that properly. Even when we create a statement or when we have an idea, they need to be taken seriously.

We don't need to be empowered. We already have the power, we have the knowledge (though we're always keen to learn more), and we have the lived experience. What we do need are platforms that take our voices seriously, funding for our initiatives, and to be recognised as decision-makers and as leaders too.

And it's not only the youths classified as solely climate advocates who need to be in the room. Young people working at the intersection of climate, those of us who are feminists, who fight for gender justice, health justice, disability justice, we need to be with the drafters, in the decision-making spaces, not just the advocacy ones. Climate spaces aren't only for the environment, because there's no climate justice without gender justice, without SRHR justice, without disability justice. It's all connected, just like our moana.

What inspired you to do the Climate Reality Leadership Training, and how has the training shaped your work in the climate space?

I joined The Climate Reality Project because I was tired of watching SRHR get pushed to the background of climate conversations, especially here in the Pacific, where we live this crisis every day. SRHR is already hard enough to access in our region because of colonial legacies, under-resourced systems, and geography. Climate change is making that access even more precarious.

Even the word "gender" on its own, without naming sexual and reproductive health specifically, lets SRHR slip out of the conversation. So, in every room I step into that talks about climate, I make sure to push for specifically SRHR out loud. You can see that in the Pacific Youth Climate Statement that will be presented at Pre-COP and COP – SRHR is named, not implied.

I also wanted to be part of a movement that makes sure the Pacific is never left out of global climate conversations, and that keeps pushing back on the idea that we're a symbol of loss rather than a symbol of resilience and needed change. For me, joining Climate Reality was about making sure these issues stop being treated as separate from each other. The training gave me a more grounded understanding of climate justice, gave me more tools for advocacy and for looking after myself while doing it, and connected me with other young people who are also reclaiming their space in this work.

How can we work across generations to build stronger, lasting movements?

In the Pacific, intergenerational knowledge sharing is part of our culture already. Our elders carry wisdom, lived experience, and historical understanding. Youth bring creativity, innovation, and urgency. Together, we're stronger, and we keep the movement alive.

Building that means making space for mutual respect, where seasoned activists pass on what they know, and youth are supported to lead in their own way. Elders creating room for youth to lead, and youth honouring the foundations that were built before us. It's a dialogue not based on hierarchy. It is collaboration, not competing for the influence. Mentorship paired with a willingness to change. The goal is not to hand over leadership like a baton. It's to walk alongside each other.

I also believe one of the ways we build lasting movements is by getting to know each other personally. A movement is strong and beautiful when the relationships in it are real. So many of the most valuable things I have learnt have come from side conversations, over morning tea, during a stretch session, or over kava. Those are the organic kinds of learning a formal room can not always create. 

Eventually, I won't be young. I am turning 25 this year, and I recognise that my climate needs as a 25-year-old are very different from when I was 15, or 19. As youth, we also need to create space for those younger than us. At the Regional Conference of Youth Oceania, I met young people around five years younger than me who had incredible ideas and experience. I have also benefited from youths older than me who have encouraged me, brought me into spaces and helped me grow, including those who have worked on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion ( ed:  the 2005 opinion establishing the obligation of states to address climate change. )

 I think we have a responsibility to do that for those coming after us too, to encourage them, build them up and create space for them to lead. That is how we keep the movement alive, relevant and growing for many generations to come. 

DO NOT underestimate youth, and DO NOT underestimate the Pacific. We are not 'the sad stories from the Pacific.' We are here to shape law, shift systems, and claim justice for our people.

What can the world learn from Pacific communities about tackling climate, gender, and youth challenges together?

In the Pacific, we don't separate the environment from the people living in it, or policy from lived experience. Our advocacy is rooted in community, culture, and care, and in the understanding that no solution holds unless the people most affected are part of building it.

We have shown what values-led leadership looks like in practice. Minister Simon Kofe standing in rising seawater to deliver his COP 26 address. The youth-led work of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, which helped bring about the ICJ advisory opinion. These weren't symbolic moments. They were strategic, built on ancestral wisdom, and carried by youths and communities working together across generations and islands.

What makes Pacific advocacy different is how relational and grounded it is. We don't just speak to institutions from a distance, we speak from our land, our people, and our values. We act with urgency because this crisis is already reshaping our ways of life.

What are your hopes for the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on climate change? How do you see it influencing gender and youth advocacy?

The ICJ advisory opinion is a landmark moment, not just for the Pacific but for global climate justice. It shows the tremendous hard work that small island nations and youth leaders have done filled with passion and urgency. It gives us a legal foundation to hold governments accountable for climate inaction, including their responsibility to protect the SRHR of their people. It gives weight to demands Pacific people have been raising for years, and visibility we fought for.

It's also a reminder to the world: DO NOT underestimate youth, and DO NOT underestimate the Pacific. We are not "the sad stories from the Pacific." We are here to shape law, shift systems, and claim justice for our people. This is what we continue to do because states have to be held accountable. Our Pacific governments need to lead and actually listen to the young people who helped get us to this point. We need reparations. We need real reform. And as we edge closer to overshooting 1.5 degrees, we need finance and adaptation planning that treats SRHR and community health as core parts of resilience, not as the line items that get cut when budgets tighten.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

SRHR needs to be named specifically in every climate conversation, not folded quietly into "gender." It is not a secondary issue. It is core to people's survival and dignity, particularly in the Pacific and other frontline regions.

I also want to be clear that youth engagement can’t just be something that happens around COP. COP is an important point in that process, but the engagement needs to be part of a wider ecosystem; building from communities, building toward COP, and then bringing those conversations and outcomes back to communities. 

Over the past year, that has meant sitting through three separate Pre-COP Talanoa consultations: with UN Development Programme and the Pacific Youth Council on climate governance and finance, with UNICEF Pacific on climate as a child rights and wellbeing issue, and with UNFPA on climate, SRHR, and gender-based violence, because each conversation built on the last. It’s meant contributing to the Pacific Youth Climate Statement that came out of the Regional Conference of Youth Oceania. And it’s meant working with Youth OCEANS and International Planned Parenthood Federation on a documentary series with young people in Tonga, Vanuatu and Tuvalu, so that young people affected by all of this get to tell their own stories to the world. And I look forward to continuing these engagement post-COP. 

For me, that’s what meaningful youth engagement looks like: not just bringing young people to COP, but creating a cycle where young people are engaged in their communities; their priorities are carried into regional and global spaces; and what comes out of those spaces is brought back home.

Youth deserve more than symbolic inclusion. We need to be engaged meaningfully, resourced properly, and trusted to lead. Young people have always led and we continue to lead.