Leota Kosi Latu
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Leota Kosi Latu | |
|---|---|
| Director-General of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme | |
| In office January 2016 – 3 April 2022 | |
| Deputy | Easter Chu Sing |
| Preceded by | David Sheppard |
| Succeeded by | Sefanaia Nawadra |
Leota Namulauulu Lalomanu Kosi Latu is a Samoan lawyer and diplomat who served as Director-General of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme from 2016 to 2022. He is the brother of rugby player and lawyer George Latu.[1]
Latu was educated at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.[2] He worked as a prosecutor for the Samoan Attorney General's Office before moving to London to work as a lawyer for the Commonwealth Secretariat.[3] From 2006 to 2008 he worked for the United Nations Office for Project Services alongside the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat in Suva, Fiji.[2]
In 2008 he was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.[4] In September 2015 he was selected as its Director-General.[3] From the beginning of his term as Director he was a strong voice on climate change, urging Pacific nations to speak up[5] and demanding rich nations show greater ambition in reducing emissions.[6] At the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice he urged countries to hold temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.[7] In 2019, he opened the Pacific Climate Change Centre in Apia, Samoa, to serve as a regional research center on the issue.[8][9] Other issues he focused on included nuclear waste shipments[10] and waste dumping by fishing boats.[11]
His term as Director-General ended on 3 April 2022. He was replaced by Sefanaia Nawadra.[12][4]
