28 August 2017
Hub researchers and staff recently travelled to the Solomon Islands as specialist advisors for a workshop to develop the capacity of Pacific Island countries to use climate change information for decision making.
Turning climate change science into services
The workshop was part of a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade project that is funding CSIRO and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to help Pacific Island Countries better use climate change science.
Cocoa beans drying at a planation in the Guadalcanal plain (Photo: K. Pearce)
The project team (which includes Hub researchers) has prepared guidelines to help Pacific Island stakeholders identify, find and develop climate change information, and use that information to conduct climate risk and vulnerability assessments and develop knowledge products.
The guidelines are being demonstrated with a case study in the Solomon Islands that is looking at how climate change could affect cocoa production on the Guadalcanal plain.
The case study is being developed by the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, with support from climate scientists and climate risk assessment specialists from CSIRO.
The workshop was conducted to support the development of the case study and to raise the awareness of the new guidelines across the Pacific region.
National science, international impact
This workshop is one of a number of activities in the region that is leveraging off the Hub’s work to improve our understanding of the past, current and future climate, and to build the utility of climate change information.
Group discussions at the recent workshop in Honiara (Photo: SPREP)
While the Hub’s focus is on Australia, regional climate science – such as this work examining rainfall in the Pacific –is directly adding to the knowledge base of Pacific climate change information that is drawn on by countries across the region.
The Hub’s work applying climate change science, and making it more accessible and usable across a range of user groups, also benefits our Pacific neighbours.
As they did in Honiara, Hub researchers can draw on and share experiences and expertise developed through the Hub that their Pacific colleagues can, in turn, share in their own countries.