LocationsClimate Security Regional Dialogue: Towards a climate-secure future for the Pacific
September 13, 2022
Participants attending the regional workshop on climate security at the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat.
Suva, Fiji – A two-day regional workshop was held in Suva from 31 August to 1 September to inform the development of the first-ever Pacific Regional Climate Security Assessment Framework. The Dialogue provided an opportunity with government officials, experts and Non-State Actors from the Pacific islands region to discuss pathways and entry-points to address critical regional climate-related security risks.
The Dialogue was organized in partnership by the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as part of the Climate Security in the Pacific project.
The Dialogue followed a Pacific regional climate specialists workshop in May 2022, in which civil society organizations, development partners, regional agencies and Pacific academia focused on how to identify and assess specific climate-related security risks in the Pacific.
PIFS Deputy Secretary-General Dr. Filimon Manoni opened the Dialogue by highlighting the importance of the Regional Climate Security Assessment Framework, as, “It will help to provide an insight into how the impacts of climate change could lead to conflict in Pacific communities, noting the Leaders’ regional position that climate change is the single greatest threat to the security and wellbeing of Pacific Peoples.”
PIFS Deputy Secretary-General Dr. Filimon Manoni opening the Dialogue
Levan Bouadze, Resident Representative of the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji welcomed dialogue participants and stated, “There is an urgent need to identify, examine and monitor climate security risks, and to develop scalable solutions to address those risks.” He added that “a central output of the Climate Security in the Pacific Project is to support national and regional actors to identify security issues stemming from climate change, using the preliminary findings of the assessment framework, and by subsequently applying the tested assessment methodology to their own contexts.”
Chief of Mission to IOM Fiji, Mr. Solomon Kantha noted, “We recognize that there is a wealth of work underway to address issues related to climate security, led by Governments, Civil Society, CROP (Council of Regional Organizations in the Pacific) and UN agencies. We welcome this chance to come together and ensure that efforts to address climate security challenges build on and complement these efforts, and as such further build resilience and adaptive capacity in the region.”
Representatives from the New York-based UN Climate Security Mechanism outlined climate security at the international level, bringing examples from Africa and the Sub-Continent, and stressed the importance of including the Pacific perspective on climate security in global discourse.
In-person participants attending the Dialogue.
Online participants attending the Dialogue
The Dialogue concluded with an update presentation on the Climate Security in the Pacific project, which is contributing to achievement of the goals set out in the Peace and Security Thematic Area of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and the Boe Declaration Action Plan Strategic Area 1: Climate Security.