Heine: ‘Sustainability was not just a buzzword, it’s just how we lived’
President Hilde C. Heine of the Marshall Islands opened the keynote address at the University of Guam’s 2025 Center for Island Sustainability conference with her personal story growing up in the Marshalls.
Heine told conference goers that her family lived off the land and sea at a time where ships with supplies visiting her home island came only once every six months.
“That way of life shaped who I am today,” she said. “[It] fuels my commitment to a future where we return to a balance. Not in a nostalgic way, but with new tools, partnerships, and knowledge.”
President Hilde C. Heine spoke at UOG’s CIS 2025. Photo by Skyler Obispo
Climate change and rising sea levels threaten the Marshalls. According to Heine, some atolls sit two meters above sea level.
“Questions such as which atolls and communities are to be fortified, elevated, and saved,” she said.
However, much of these efforts cost money and resources that the Marshalls lacks. Heine said that the implementation of the efforts needs to be thought out; poor planning would only exacerbate the situation she added.
Several coastal reinforcement projects are ongoing in the Marshalls.
In 2018, the Green Climate Fund began the implementation of a $59.9 million project to enhance coastal infrastructure in Majuro and Ebeye to protect against sea level rise and storms.
According to an annual performance report for calendar year 2023, the bidding process for the Ebeye seawall construction was expected to be completed by March 2024 with construction to begin later that year. The project is expected to be completed December 2025.
Heine said that the Marshalls has made strides to develop local expertise in the renewable energy and conservation sciences.
The Marshall Islands Conservation Society is scheduled to present its findings on the research of “super reefs”, heat resilient coral reefs found in the Marshalls, at the 10th Our Ocean Conference in Busan, South Korea alongside researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Heine added that 59 women have completed training in solar energy technologies.
“Their success is proof that local innovation and empowerment are at the heart of [resiliency],” she said.
Heine rounded out her keynote calling for a unified, calculated, and rapid approach to regional climate resiliency and sustainability efforts.
Sea levels continue to rise rapidly, she reiterated and that decisions to combat climate change needed to have impacts to not only to allow islands to just survive, but to thrive. mbj
