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 | The Minister for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, Colonel Samuela Saumatua and the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Dr Esther Williams (centre) with participants at the forum. |
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Climate change and the natural disasters it causes, is here to stay. It is now a reality we have to live with. This condition is not going to improve, it can only get worse. Therefore preparedness for these disaster situations should be based on a worst case scenario.
These remarks were shared by the Honourable Minister for Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, Colonel Samuela Saumatua, at the opening of the Pacific Islands Climate Services Forum on 22 January, 2013.
Held at the Multi Purpose Theatre, Japan-Pacific ICT Centre at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, the forum provides an opportunity for dialogue between climate experts and decision makers, including resource and disaster risk managers and community planners, as well as government ministries and policy makers from across the region.
Colonel Saumatua said the input provided by the speakers and participants will provide valuable insights on how climate and weather forecasting can help nations and communities prepare for the considerable challenges of the next decade and century.
He stated that the Government was reaching out to stakeholders to see how the level of preparedness can be raised to further improve resilience.
The forum is being hosted by the University’s Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PACE-SD) and the Pacific Climate Information System (PaCIS) with support from the US Department of State, AusAID Future Climate Leaders Program, EU Global Climate Change Alliance (EU-GCCA) Project and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Minister commended USP and PACE-SD for hosting the forum and the cooperation of the international community was also welcomed.
“It is from forums such as this, that Government can rely on to improve its position in as far as climate change and disasters are concerned. Increasing our resilience to a changing climate and environment requires the sort of global international partnership represented by those gathered here,” participants heard.
Meanwhile, the Acting USP Vice-Chancellor, Dr Esther Williams said the forum provides a platform for the Pacific to learn more about climate change.
“The discussions will focus on what information is available and what more needs to be done to help Pacific Island communities become more resilient to changing climate,” she mentioned.
Dr Williams stressed the need to know and have more information about climate change and how the dissemination of such information can be improved.
The week-long forum is organised around three components: a multi-day workshop/dialogue; training; and a partners meeting.
The workshop/dialogue component provides an opportunity for the sharing of local climate knowledge and impacts, the state of climate science knowledge and resources, implications of the impacts of climate change over the near and long term to key resources and the identification of knowledge gaps. The training component focuses on tools and services that can be accessed by communities to help inform adaptation strategies, and the partners meeting will help evaluate the outcomes of the workshop/dialogue and place them in a context that supports more harmonized development and delivery of new or improved products and services that meet the needs of those using the information.
Dr Norman Barth, US Embassy’s Regional Environmental Officer for the Pacific, explained that the Pacific region must use climate service tools in order to better understand climate conditions in the region.
He elaborated that climate services were advanced information on climate for the next two, three to four months, and was an extremely useful expanded weather forecast.
This, Dr Barth said could help farmers decide on what to plant and in disaster risk management.
The forum ends today.
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