ISTANBUL, Türkiye — Palauan youth and climate advocate Antoni “Toni” Soalablai is wrapping up a visit across Türkiye as part of a series of engagements between young people from the Pacific, Australia and Türkiye ahead of COP31.

The visit took Soalablai through Ankara, Konya, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa and Istanbul alongside COP31 Presidency Youth Climate Champion Sally Higgins. Organized and funded by the Government of Türkiye, the program included meetings and engagements with high school and university students, government officials, United Nations agencies, farmers and agricultural institutions.

Soalablai works with Palau’s Office of Climate Change and serves as president of the Koror State Youth Council. During the visit, she shared experiences from Palau and heard from young people in Türkiye about their own concerns around climate change.

“I consider myself a story sharer, not a storyteller,” Soalablai said. “I bring with me what Palauans have felt, seen, heard, touched and grieved.”

In Ankara, Soalablai and Higgins met with university students to discuss climate change and the experiences of young people in the Pacific. The program also included discussions with high school students and engagements with UNICEF and UNFPA focused on youth participation.

“They were curious. They asked difficult questions, and they wanted to know what life in Palau is actually like,” Soalablai said of the students she met. “There were moments where I was sitting on the other side of the world talking to young people whose lives are completely different from mine, and yet some of the things we worry about are not that different.”

The wider program included a meeting with Fatma Varank, Türkiye’s Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and Chief Executive Officer of COP31, as well as meetings with municipal leaders. The group also learned about Türkiye’s Zero Waste initiative and visited farmers and agricultural institutions dealing with the effects of the climate crisis on food production.

For Soalablai, discussions around changing weather, food security and adaptation were also familiar to issues faced in Palau. She spoke about the knowledge Pacific communities have relied on to manage resources and respond to environmental change over generations.

The visit comes as Türkiye and Australia work together in the lead up to COP31. Türkiye holds the COP31 Presidency and will host the conference in Antalya, while Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, serves as President of Negotiations.

COP31 will also take place during Palau’s final year as Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which represents small island and low lying coastal developing states in the UN climate process. Palau will lead the group in negotiations at COP31.

For Soalablai, the visit has also raised questions about how Pacific countries and young people will be included in the process.

“There is value in being invited to share our stories, especially when people may never have had the opportunity to hear directly from someone from Palau,” she said. “At the same time, I think we have to keep asking how Pacific people are involved beyond sharing those stories.”

The visit concludes in Istanbul before Soalablai returns to Palau.

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Palauan youth and climate advocate Toni Soalablai speaks with students during a technology and robotics class in Şanlıurfa, Türkiye.

Toni Soalablai and COP31 Presidency Youth Climate Champion Sally Higgins participate in an agricultural visit in Gaziantep, where farmers shared how they are responding to changing climate conditions.