Search the SPREP Catalogue

Weather, climate and related conditions affect everyone on the planet. The variability of the atmosphere oceans and land surface, on timescales from minutes to centuries, exerts major influence on the population and economy, Extreme weather events, prolonged droughts, floods and other natural weather-related disasters have a financial, social and economic impact on every country.

Tropical Cyclone (TC) Pam was one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Vanuatu. The country suffered loss and damage to an extent that vastly overwhelmed its own capacities.

Energy is the engine of economic growth. Therefore the Government recognizes the need to manage the energy sector in a manner that is efficient and sustainable. Development of the country’s energy resources therefore will be coordinated in a manner that guarantees PNG attains sustainable income from energy exports while at the same time, the Government wants to see the unit cost of energy reduced in order to make PNG an internationally competitive country to invest in.The provision of reliable, accessible and affordable energy contributes to economic and social development, and development in turn depends on more use of energy for the nation’s sustenance but in a manner that is technically sound and the sector is efficiently regulated. Hence, this policy is all about finding a balance between making PNG an attractive investment destination for exporting energy to the energy hungry world and at the same time promoting PNG’s economic development based on low energy cost.

The study has been undertaken in two phases. The first incorporated a desktop review to catalogue and critically evaluate existing approaches to shoreline protection in the Pacific, based on technical, social, and environmental criteria

The current study continues the PEBACC project in Vanuatu. It builds on an earlier PEBACC study that undertook a baseline ecosystem and socio-economic resilience analysis and mapping appraisal of the Port Vila Metropolitan area. The methodology approach adopted provided for mainly desk-top review work, supplemented by four key workshops (including one in Port Vila), interviews with Port Vila stakeholders, and brief field inspection in Port Vila.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are areas of the ocean set aside for long-term conservation aims.| MPAs support climate change adaptation and mitigation while providing other ecosystem services.| Currently 6.35% of the ocean is protected, but only just over 1.89% is covered by exclusively no-take MPAs.| Most existing MPAs do not have enough human and financial resources to properly implement conservation and management measures.| Increased political commitments can help boost the governance of and resources available to MPAs.

National SoE Reports give information about environmental and social conditions, trends and pressures for the country, and the surrounding seas. The SoE reporting process forms the basis for effective environmental and sustainable development planning by examining the current condition of environmental indicators influenced by national, regional, and global pressures. The report uses state and trend indicators to evaluate how these “state” conditions impact not only the environment, but also the economy and the livelihoods of a country’s citizens. The term “environment” is used holistically to include biophysical, social, and economic indicators. An SoE Report should be completed every five years.

Increasingly frequent severe coral bleaching is among the greatest threats to coral reefs posed by climate change. Global climate models (GCMs) project great spatial variation in the timing of annual severe bleaching (ASB) conditions; a point at which reefs are certain to change and recovery will be limited. However, previous model-resolution projections (approximately 1x1°) are too coarse to inform reef management planning (recognized, for example, in SAMOA Pathways, paragraph 44b). To meet the need for higher-resolution projections, the first objective of this report is to present statistically downscaled projections (4-km resolution) for all the world’s coral reefs using the newest generation of IPCC climate models (CMIP5). Results are reported by country and territory, grouped in bioregions based on the 10 UNEP Regional Seas programmes with coral reefs (also including countries or territories in or near the Regional Sea area but not participating in the Regional Sea).

Summary of 48th PIFS Leaders Meeting in Apia, Samoa

Samoa is home to abundant plant life including indigenous species and some foreign introduced plant species. A majority of the foreign plants were introduced to Samoa in the pre-independence era through arrival of the early missionaries, Germans and Japanese, for various purposes from medicinal use to construction. These plants can be found across all the four islands; Upolu, Savai’i, Manono and Apolima. As part of the EU-GIZ Adapting to Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (ACSE) programme, a component of the Energy Bill and Sustainable Bioenergy, Samoa project focuses on biomass resource assessments at the Samoa Trust Estates Corporation (STEC) Plantation at Mulifanua, Upolu. Through fieldwork for biomass resource assessments at the non-leased land areas within the STEC Mulifanua plantation, eight common plants were identified and further scientific analysis on each was conducted by the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS). SROS laboratory tests took place over a period of 14 days using the Quality Management System implemented by SROS and which also meets the requirements of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, ISO/IEC 17025 (2005). Thus, this publication provides a brief description of these plants as well as some data on moisture content and energy content under different conditions.