POCCA Assessment Report Launched at COP29: Media Briefing
15 November 2024
The successful launch of the Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) Report, the result of a joint collaboration between The University of the South Pacific and University of Canterbury (UC) at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 11 began with a media briefing with media representatives from around the world.
Prior to the official launching, the media briefing hosted by the New Zealand Science Media Centre, saw the project co-leads from each institution, Distinguished Prof. Steven Ratuva (UC) and Dr. Hilda Waqa-Sakiti & Associate Prof. Awnesh Singh (USP) spoke about the report at length.
The POCCA project’s major output is the delivery of the Assessment Report which is the largest Indigenous-led research project ever undertaken on climate change adaptation, mitigation and resilience with over 100 Pacific scholars collaborating to produce this comprehensive assessment of the impacts of climate on Pacific island states and responses.
Distinguished Prof. Ratuva highlighted that the report pulls together various disciplines from the natural science, social science and humanities with prominence given to Indigenous knowledge and voices of people from the Pacific communities.
He added that while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report provides the sciences of what’s happening globally, the POCCA report deals with experiences, reflections, indigenous knowledge of people on the ground on their resilience.
He emphasized that these have been deeply embedded towards building community resilience over time. Prof. Ratuva further stated that the biggest lesson coming out of this report is that while the COP narrative provides the narrative for the global platform, the POCCA report narrative captures what’s happening on the ground to then inform what’s happening regionally and globally.
Dr. Waqa-Sakiti said that the POCCA Assessment report was the largest ever Pacific-led research with the comprehensive report being one of the first of its kind for the Pacific comprising of 19 thematic chapters capturing stories, narratives and lived experiences from Pacific people towards building their resilience.
She added that across the thematic chapters were policy recommendations for the region, which the team hopes that Pacific leaders will find useful in framing national policies and strategies on Climate Change.
Associate Prof. Singh highlighted that the report provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change for the Pacific and that the chapters have also included Pacific research students as authors in integrating their research into the case studies and further developing capacity for the region.
The project co-leads ended the session by acknowledging all the authors, the Pacific communities and stakeholders that were interviewed and the POCCA Project team from both The University of the South Pacific and The University of Canterbury for mammoth task undertaken in bringing together this POCCA Assessment Report, Volume 1, especially the New Zealand MFAT for funding the POCCA 3-year project.