The forging of a new partnership to address climate change in the Solomon Islands is being discussed between the Pacific Climate Change Centre (PCCC) hosted at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the Solomon Islands National University (SINU).
The discussions were held in Honiara between representatives from the PCCC, Ms Ofa Kaisamy and Mr Fred Patison, SINU Vice Chancellor, Dr Transform Aqorau and Pro-vice Chancellor Cooperate, Mr Shedrach Fanega, and officials from the Climate Change Division, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM).
The collaboration between PCCC, SINU and MECDM initially started as part of the Pacific Games Village Greening Initiative and the discussions have expanded to include broader areas on capacity building and training, climate change research, and innovation aligned to the key functions of the PCCC. SINU and PCCC are also working on a concept to utilise traditional knowledge and practice to respond to the challenges and impacts of climate change.
SINU Vice Chancellor, Professor Transform Aqorau expressed the university’s support and willingness to collaborate with the PCCC through SPREP, and says that his team are ready and have already begun implementing the activities for the greening of the SINU as a Games village. He further expressed that SINU is working towards the broader vision to make Honiara a green city as a step towards building climate change resilience.
The PCCC Manager, Mrs Ofa Kaisamy expressed the PCCC and SPREP’ appreciation and deep gratitude to SINU and MECDM through the climate change office for their partnership, and further highlighted that the active engagement and participation through the implementation of the Games village greening activities is a great starting point for the long-term collaboration between the PCCC, SINU and Solomon Islands Government.
The discussions on the MOU focused on key areas of common interest around climate change for both the PCCC and SINU. The PCCC engagement with SINU is through the PCCC research partnership framework with a focus on research, capacity building, training and developing innovative solutions to climate change. SINU Vice Chancellor, Professor Aqorau expressed that local engagement and getting the voice of rural communities and people affected by climate change on a daily basis is an issue SINU wants to focus on. He stated that research and training and engagement for community resilience is a priority for SINU and as such find and implement locally invented solutions. The MOU between PCCC and SINU is therefore a platform that will enable collaboration towards community led and driven climate change solutions.
The discussions on the MOU was followed by the launch of the SINU Pacific Games Village Greening Initiative. The launching was undertaken at the SINU Panatina Campus and led by the SINU Vice-Chancellor, the PCCC Manager and the Deputy Director of Climate Change from MECDM.
The PCCC since its establishment in 2019 has been supporting Pacific Island countries and territories through its four key functions on capacity building, science to services, knowledge brokerage and innovation to catalyse action and invent meaningful solutions to climate change. The MOU between SPREP-PCCC and SINU is expected to be signed in early 2024.