Home - Pacific Regional Environment Programme

Celebrate World Wetlands Day!

[Nature Conservation]Statement from David Sheppard, Director of SPREP

World Wetlands Day, on the second day of February each year, marks the day the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971. This annual event provides us with an opportunity to raise and strengthen awareness of the importance of wetlands throughout the world and in our region. Furthermore, with the International Year of Biodiversity kicking off across the world, including here in our Pacific islands, we are reminded yet again of the wondrous natural systems that combine to make life on our planet possible.

The 2nd of February, however, should have special significance for any one of us who has ever swam in a river, paddled a canoe through some mangroves, collected crabs or shellfish from mudfl ...(to be continued)

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Tuvalu prepares to adapt to climate change through PACC Project

[PACC in Tuvalu]In upraising the profile of the PACC Project in Tuvalu, a one day inception meeting was held last week at the Government Conference Room to introduce and launch the project. It was attended by government agencies, representatives from Non-Governmental Organisations, different representatives from the eight different Island communities of Tuvalu and youth groups.

The meeting was given recognition by the government and was officially opened by the Secretary for Works, Water and Energy. In his presentation, Mr. Paulson Panapa, recognised the important objectives of the project in trying to build the adaptation capacity of the people in adapting to impact of climate change and also recognises the assistance that the project can offer to the people of Tuvalu in terms of demonstrating th ...(to be continued)

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More information about PACC->

1.5 degrees rejected, Pacific condemned as 25 leaders deliver Copehagen Accord

[Climate Change and Variability]Saturday 19 December 2009, COPENHAGEN--Officials from a growing list of countries at the UN Climate Change Talks are aligning themselves to a deal offered after a 24 hour marathon session that started on Friday and stretched out into Saturday. The deal was officially noted by the COP on Saturday morning some 12 hours after the United States announced the set up of a agreement on climate change. The Copenhagen Accord was nowhere near what Pacific countries were looking for, with even the deal’s strongest backers admitting that it is a flawed document but the best available, given the situation. In fact the Accord, if it is taken as the COP15 outcome condemns some low lying Pacific Island countries to the worst effects of climate change especially rising sea levels. But for some members of t ...(to be continued)

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D-Day: Leaders can still save Copenhagen, says WWF

[Climate Change and Variability]Friday 18 December 2009, COPENHAGEN--Leaders arriving to sign a Copenhagen climate agreement and finding that they now need to salvage it need to take a global rather than national approach to the numerous outstanding issues, WWF said today.

“It looks like The Copenhagen Climate Summit could have made it through the valley of death”, said Kim Carstensen, Leader of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative.

“It’s encouraging that some new offers are starting to hit the table. Now is the time for Heads of States to show their leadership skills. We need to turn the positive dynamic into a real domino effect, so that actions by countries add up to a global effort that protects us from climate change.”

Carstensen said that after days of deadlock there was renewed movement on the lon ...(to be continued)

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COP15 Copenhagen
Pacific Team Blog

Read all about COP15 here.
United Nations Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark 7 Dec - 18 Dec 2009
Articles by the COP15 Pacific news team. Click here

2009 Pacific Year of
Climate Change