Good climate change data and information management practices are critical for supporting decision-makers, researchers and practitioners to undertake more effective adaptation and resilience planning was a key topic discussed at the 3rd International United Nations Conference on Small Island Developing States (UN SIDS 2014) held in Samoa in September 2014.
The dialogue was part of a side event, “International cooperation on climate change data and information management,’ hosted by the Government of Vanuatu in collaboration with The Secretariat of Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Griffith University. The side event was opened by the Honorable James Bule, Minister for Climate Change and Natural Disasters, Government of Vanuatu and had strong attendance from delegates, including the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Pacific Director of German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Wulf Killman.
The side event was jointly facilitated by Dr Netatua Pelesikoti, Director, Climate Change, SPREP and Professor Brendan Mackey, Director, Griffith Climate Change Response Program and involved presentations on lessons learnt, existing barriers and progress made in climate change data and information cooperation by delegates from the Governments of Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The side event dialogue kept to the UN SIDS 2014 theme of “Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States through Genuine and Durable Partnerships,” and the key recommendation of greater cooperation on climate change data and information management among SIDS now forms part of the Samoa Pathway Outcome Document.
Professor Mackey said that “the UN SIDS conference is a unique event in that it is held every 10 years, and provides a platform for SIDS and their stakeholders to come together to share their experience and knowledge and to commit to genuine development partnerships.”
The Pacific iCLIM project is supported by the Government Partnerships for Development program (an Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade initiative) and being implemented by Griffith University in collaboration with SPREP.
The Pacific iCLIM project aims to provide stakeholders in the Pacific with the capability to store data and information on stable infrastructure that will be available over the long-term; improve the capability of stakeholders to discover data and information through greater connectivity among information portals; ensure that connected data and information is clearly described with standard metadata, making it more widely discoverable to stakeholders; and ensure that data and data produced from tools are in a format and system that makes it both reusable and re-discoverable. More information on the Pacific iCLIM project can be found at www.griffith.edu.au/pacific-iclim.