Tearinaki Tanielu is the Director for Multilateral Affairs of the Kiribati Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Immigration. He is a former United Nations—Nippon Foundation Fellow and an Alliance of Small Islands States Climate Change Fellow, during which time he was based in New York and followed negotiations on climate change and oceans. He has served as Advisor to the Kiribati Permanent Representative to the United Nations,and he currently serves as Consultant to the International Seabed Authority, on secondment from his Government. His areas of expertise include climate change, oceans governance, law of the sea, and natural resources development. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marine Geology and Coastal Processes from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a MSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southampton, U.K. He is currently commencing PhD studies at the University of Melbourne.

RESI thematic areas: Environmental justice, International alliances, Equitable societies