11th October, 2018 Following the 4th RESPAC Project Board Meeting yesterday, the Project Steering Committee continued with the second meeting on Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) Project today, at Liku’alofa Beach Resort.
The initiative of the SIDS CREWS Project is implemented by the World Bank and World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Chair of the Project Steering Committee and Director of Tonga’s Meteorology Department, Mr ‘Ofa Fa’anunu said, “Tonga is happy to host such meeting and it is a big opportunity to address our needs regarding the components of the project in developing Tonga’s meteorology strategies as well as hydrological strategies.”
He said that this project will run for 4 years until 2021 with funding of US$5 million dollars to assist the Pacific Islands including Tonga to improve their climate early warning systems.
“This project is funded by six countries; ‘Australia, France, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany and Canada. These countries pooled their efforts to improve Small Island Developing States accessing to early warning systems.”
According to the Director of the Development and Regional Activities Department at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Ms Mary Power …., “This meeting, we hope to refine the work plan and identify scope of additional activities in responding to the needs of individual countries.”
“Through updating what has been done previous years ago, would be a plan ahead through discussion around the table and also other regional partners are here to support the project.”
The Head of the CREWS Project at the World Meteorology Organization (WMO), Mr. John Harding emphasized that, the CREWS project focuses on strengthening the capacity of the Pacific Islands in forecasting and monitoring extreme events such as a tropical cyclones, floods and providing information in a way that is usable to the community so that they can take effective action to reduce the impact of those events.
Mr. Harding stated that SIDS is an important group of states to the UN as they face a number of specific vulnerabilities in relation to climate change and natural disasters.
The SIDS CREWS Project meeting is one of the four meetings that the Government of Tonga through MEIDECC is hosting this week and next week.
ENDS
Issued by the: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change & Communications.