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Climate Change Matters Issue 59, September 2017

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EDITORIAL

Greetings from Apia,

While a lot of important leaders meetings were taking place in the region in September, there were also a large number of technical meetings convened.
These will all contribute towards the scientific basis of climate change work in the region.

Work on the Pacific Climate Change Portal was further advanced by a workshop to test user acceptance of the decision support tools that have been developed in partnership with Griffith University under the iCLIM project. As with a lot of portal related work, there is a need to fine tune and upgrade the services that are offered. Thus the Vanuatu hosted workshop was an important opportunity to gather more robust information and feedback on what the actual end users incountry are looking for in these support tools.

Meetings to discuss early warning systems and climate outlook tools are also an important part of the work of SPREP, as these are not only inter-linked closely with the work on National Meteorological Services, but can also form the baselines and provide relevant data to the development of climate change projects in the region.

The Pacific Meteorological Council held its meeting in Honiara, and was graced by the presence of the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Professor Petteri Taallas. The Secretary General has been a staunch supporter of work in the region, and was instrumental in securing funding for the Finnish-Pacific Project (FINPAC) project in the region. WMO is also becoming an even more important partner for SPREP and climate change work in the region, given their status as an accredited entity under the Green Climate Fund.

SPREP looks forward to even greater cooperation between WMO and Pacific Island Countries as this partnership progresses.

Espen Ronneberg
Acting Director