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International waters is one of four focal areas of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF was created in 1994 to provide financing for programmes and projects to achieve global environment benefits in four focal areas: ?? biodiversity; ?? climate change; ?? international waters; and ?? and ozone layer depletion. International waters include oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed seas and estuaries as well as rivers, lakes, groundwater systems, and wetlands with trans-boundary drainage basins or common borders involving two or more countries. The ecosystems and habitats associated with these waters are essential parts of the system (IWP 2002c).

Most climate scientist agree that the world climate is changing and that the atmosphere is warming up. But little is known about how fast our climate is changing or how much. The Department of Energy of the United States is trying to find out. Atmoshperic Radiation Measurement (ARM) research programme, which is collecting long term weather climate and atmosphere observations in the United States mainland in Arctic Alaska and in the Tropical Western Pacific. This film is about the ARM programme in the Pacific Ocean. Currently there are 2 research stations: in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Both stations have been set up in a collaborative effort between ARM, the Government of Papua New Guinea and Nauru and SPREP, the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme. The Central Pacific Ocean is sometimes called `the engine room of world climate". Slight changes in the surface temperature of the ocean here can have an immense effect on climate conditions worldwide. It is therefore extremely important for climate researchers to understand the changes in our region. Local observers have been trained and are now running the sophisticated scientific equipment in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. This film gives an insight into the ARM Programme itself, the stations in the Pacific and why climate research in the Pacific is particularly important.

In recent years, global warming has come to the fore as one of the world's most serious environmental problems. Meanwhile, over the past ten years, international negotiations and the accumulation of scientific knowledge in this field have led to remarkable progress — such as the adoption and entry into force of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, and the release of the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. With regard to the Kyoto Protocol, which sets forth the commitments of developed countries for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Japan completed its ratification procedures in June 2002, and is also working with other countries to make the Protocol's entry into force a reality.