The Pacific Ocean and Climate Crisis Assessment Report successfully launched at COP29

18 November 2024

The volume one of Pacific Island and Climate Crisis Assessment (POCCA) report – a product of the research partnership between The University of the South Pacific (USP) and the University of Canterbury (UC) – was successfully launched on November 11th at the 29th Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Baku, Azerbaijan.

This monumental effort represents the largest collection of work on climate change and ocean governance in Oceania and was funded by New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade over three years bringing together about 100 Pacific scholars and authors with the shared goal of capturing the voices and opinions of Pacific Island communities on climate change impacts.

The Pacific IPCC, as it became quickly nicknamed, addresses key regional challenges, providing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, multi-methodological study that integrates assessments of climate change, ocean governance, and related projects in 16 different countries. With a focus on case studies, community voices, and Pacific Indigenous knowledge, the report will look to significantly impact policy in the region.

At the launch, in COP29’s Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion, the Director General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Mr Sefanaia Nawadra thanked the authors for their hard work and challenged Pacific researchers and practitioners to ensure this report does not remain an island, but rather connects to more and more regionally produced high quality policy-relevant research.

One of the most valuable outcomes of the report, Nawadra continued, was increased visibility for Pacific scholars who are often excluded from global publications such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Dr Sivendra Michael, Fiji’s lead negotiator at COP29 and Permanent Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change and contributor to the report similarly complemented the fact that the volume is contextually situated, offering Pacific-specific solution and guidance for policymakers. The project will offer a platform, Dr Michael explained, for emerging Pacific scholars – including Masters and Doctoral students whose work is often not published in peer review journals – to be referenced and acknowledged for their research and hard work.

Dr Milla Vaha, USP academic with the School of Law and Social Sciences and POCCA co-author at COP29 further emphasised the unique nature of the research collaboration between USP, UC and several other national universities across the region, and across many disciplines.

The POCCA project partners, the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD), USP and the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies (MBC), UC and the project’s editorial technical teams were acknowledged for the tremendous efforts over the last few weeks culminating to the POCCA report launch at COP29.

The POCCA Volume 1 report will soon be made available online. The Volume 2 report focusing on country case studies from the Pacific will be launched at the end of the year.