Meeting to assess climate loss and damage

07 May 2016, 12:00AM

PR - A regional workshop to review the results and outputs of the project that is titled - “Towards economic resilience in the Pacific and Southeast Asia: Community-based loss and damage assessment for the tourism and agricultural sectors”, will be held on Wednesday, 11th and Thursday 12th of May, 2016 at the Moanalisa Hotel in Vaitele.

The workshop is being organized by U.N.E.S.C.O in close collaboration with the University of the South Pacific – Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD ) and the Samoa National Commission for U.N.E.S.C.O, which is part of the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture. 

The University of the South Pacific’s PaCE-SD which is based in Suva, Fiji, are also partners on the implementation of this project, which is funded by the Government of Malaysia.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi will deliver the keynote address to officiate the beginning of deliberations and consultations, which will focus on assessing loss and damage in the tourism and agricultural sectors as a result of climate change impacts.

The concept of loss and damage is relatively new and a universal definition is yet to be reached. However it relates to the impacts of climate-related stressors that occur despite efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climatic changes. In other words it can be seen as the negative effects of climate change that people have not been able to cope with or adapt to.

The initial results of this project (which will be discussed at this workshop) were collected using a toolkit for assessing loss and damage, in five countries in the Pacific region Samoa, the Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Timor Leste. Researchers from all of these countries will present their findings at the workshop. 

The project will end in June 2016, and is entering a phase of stocktaking, awareness-raising final revision of outputs and planning for follow on activities. The results of this workshop will inform final revisions of outputs, thereby enhancing their utility for stakeholders. It will also include a consultation on current gaps and guide the project team in their identification of possible follow on research.

07 May 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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