Pacific Climate Change Centre and Solomon Islands National University to Forge New Partnership for Locally Driven Climate Change Action

Image retrieved from sprep.org

The forging of a new partnership to address climate change in the Solomon Islands is being discussed between the Pacific Climate Change Centre (PCCC) hosted at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Solomon Islands National University (SINU).

The discussions were held in Honiara between representatives from the PCCC, Ms Ofa Kaisamy and Mr Fred Patison, SINU Vice Chancellor, Dr Transform Aqorau and Pro-vice Chancellor Cooperate, Mr Shedrach Fanega, and officials from the Climate Change Division, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM).

The collaboration between PCCC, SINU and MECDM initially started as part of the Pacific Games Village Greening Initiative and the discussions have expanded to include broader areas on capacity building and training, climate change research, and innovation aligned to the key functions of the PCCC. SINU and PCCC are also working on a concept to utilise traditional knowledge and practice to respond to the challenges and impacts of climate change.

SINU Vice Chancellor, Professor Transform Aqorau expressed the university’s support and willingness to collaborate with the PCCC through SPREP, and says that his team are ready and have already begun implementing the activities for the greening of the SINU as a Games village. He further expressed that SINU is working towards the broader vision to make Honiara a green city as a step towards building climate change resilience.