Pacific Islands

The community's water security coordinator David Hebblethwaite conveyed the message to a conference of the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association, currently underway in Apia.

Mr Hebblewthwaite said the success of projects in atoll countries like Tuvalu and Kiribati could be shared with bigger nations.

"Sharing approaches to drought management, to drinking water safety, to ground water management and management of rain water harvesting, we're hoping that can continue broader than just in the atolls and to some of the smaller communities in the larger countries too."

The deal was signed in June, but three of the region's largest countries - Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu - refused to join, saying it would harm their economies and was imbalanced towards Australia and New Zealand.

The negotiator, Tessa Te Mata, said PACER Plus was about building on existing regional trade agreements and adding to the dynamism, economic integration and trade in the region.

She said the countries that refused to join needed to work out how PACER Plus would work for them and what they wanted from it.

The academy's assessment, prompted by last year's decision by CSIRO to axe as many as 100 of 140 climate scientists, identified 77 extra research positions that should be created in the next four years.
 
Australia now has about 419 climate researchers, or less than 1 per cent of the 50,000 in public science. The additional tally includes 15 staff announced by the Turnbull government last year for the CSIRO after a public outcry forced the agency's chief executive Larry Marshall to reverse most of the planned cuts.
 

The discussions will advance the implementation of the USAID Institutional Strengthening for pacific island countries to Adapt to Climate Change (ISACC) and DFAT/GIZ Climate Finance Readiness in the Pacific (CFRP) projects.

Both projects are implemented jointly, to provide countries with integrated approaches.

The countries gather to share project milestones, challenges and lessons learnt and these experiences will be aligned to peer-to-peer exchanges which will be facilitated and supported by the two regional projects.

New Zealand is sending more than $US2.6 million dollars to the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering as part of a five-year plan to crack down on financial crime in the Pacific.

Mr Brownlee said terrorism financing would also be cracked down on as part of the group's efforts.

He said Pacific members would be provided with legislative and technical assistance, including training staff of institutions and law enforcement officials on dealing with financial crime.

The Pacific Community has just released PacFishID, an app which draws on data previously used by fisheries officers, but now opened to a wider digital audience.

The group's Fisheries Information Officer, Aymeric Desurmont, said the coast had been overlooked because of the focus on policing offshore fisheries.

Institute of National Affairs (INA) Director Paul Barker says Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island nations should act responsibly and use evidence of the impacts of global warming to drive the agenda forward.

Barker made reference to the recent United Nations Oceans Conference in New York, from 5-9 June 2017, which was partly driven by Pacific Island nations.

The UN Conference is aimed to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for development.

Deputy director-general of the Information Department at the China Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Xining, says they would like to promote trade with all countries.

Xining highlighted that the key idea of the Belt and Road initiative is connectivity.

The Belt and Road (B&R) is a development strategy proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian countries.

In addition to coastal erosion, rising sea levels are expected to negatively impact economic output and employment and could aggravate inflation and cause an increase in government debt, according to the study, A Blue Urban Agenda: Adapting to Climate Change in the Coastal Cities of Caribbean and Pacific Small Island Developing States.

“Caribbean and Pacific coastal cities are on the frontlines of climate change,” said Michael Donovan, Senior Urban Specialist at the IDB, co-author of the study.

Japan’s Deputy Press Secretary for the Deputy-Director General for Press and Public Diplomacy, Masato Otaka, said they will always be ready to listen to the voices of the island countries.

Otaka told Loop PNG during a dialogue with Asia Pacific journalists that Japan is ready to assist with the needs of small island nations in the Asia Pacific region.

The journalists are in Japan as part of the 2017 Jefferson Fellowships program, organised by the East-West Center based in Honolulu, Hawaii.