Source: University of Canterbury
04 November 2021
Researchers and academics from the University of Canterbury (UC) and the University of the South Pacific (USP) joined a discussion on issues that matter for the Pacific in the COP26 climate meetings.
The Zoom discussion was also the launch of a new partnership between the two institutions which are uniting in a unique research project – The Pacific Ocean Climate Crisis Assessment – that will explore the impact of climate change in the Pacific and the role indigenous knowledge can play to help communities to adapt.
The Assessment is funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is co-led by Professor Steven Ratuva, who is the Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies (MBC) at UC, New Zealand, and Professor Elisabeth Holland, Director of the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) at the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. The project will provide a robust evidence-based assessment of climate change impact and social resilience in the Pacific to help inform the global stocktake or assessment of progress and climate change resilience over time.
Other UC and USP academics supporting the project include Assoc Prof Joeli Veitayaki (USP), Dr Viliamu Iese (USP), and Prof Bronwyn Hayward (UC), who were joined by Pacific youth leaders Josiah Tualamali’i (UC postgraduate student) and Salote Nasalo (USP student) in this discussion.
