SANYA RUGGIERO Residents in Kadavu, Fiji hold up signs displaying the 17 sustainable development goals. Picture: SUPPLIED Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time” — this statement is a fact for many of you reading this today, especially if you are in Fiji, another Pacific Island country, or even the North Pole. Multiple studies have shown that 97 per cent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate change is taking place, and that it is manmade. In 2020, the UN launched The People’s Climate Vote – spanning 50 countries, covering 56 per cent of the world’s population. Based on 1.2 million respondents, 64 per cent believed the world is in a state of climate emergency.