Gabriel Mara

About

Gabriel S.J. Mara is a Fijian climate policy specialist working at the intersection of communities, governments and international climate diplomacy. His work focuses on how societies respond to climate change in practice, particularly where environmental change reshapes where and how people live, their relationships to land and the systems that sustain them. He supports governments and partners to translate complex challenges into grounded and context-specific responses, while bringing together climate science, policy and lived experience to inform decisions with lasting social, cultural and economic consequences. 

He has played a leading role in international climate negotiations, serving as Coordinator for the Group of 77 and China on National Adaptation Plans under the UNFCCC. In this role, he facilitated coordination across more than 130 developing countries and contributed to shaping global discussions on adaptation, finance and implementation. Gabriel has worked at the forefront of national climate responses, including chairing the Taskforce on Relocation and Displacement and contributing to the design and development of Fiji’s planned relocation framework, supporting its progression from early development through to operationalization, including the world’s first national Standard Operating Procedures for climate-related relocation. 

He previously represented the Melanesian subregion on the Pacific Resilience Partnership Taskforce, strengthening coordination across the Pacific. His work reflects realities already unfolding in SIDS and contributes to shaping global responses to the triple planetary crisis.