25 March 2024, Funafuti, Tuvalu – Tuvalu is taking the next steps in the development of its National Adaptation Plan (NAP), with the preliminary findings of a Climate Impact, Vulnerability, and Risk Assessment (CIVRA) study, as well as an appraisal methodology that will analyse adaptation measures, being presented this week during a series of sector workshops over the course of three days held in the heart of the nation’s capital of Funafuti.
This work is part of the Tuvalu National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Project, a three-year project funded by a USD $3 million grant from the Green Climate Fund, with the aim of developing a medium to long-term national adaptation plan that will consolidate priorities for adaptation across six priority sectors – Water, Agriculture, Education, Health, Disaster, and Coastal Protection.
The series of consultative workshop is hosted by the Tuvalu Department of Climate Change in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and partners the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and GHD Engineering.
It brings together representatives from the Department of Climate Change and the relevant sectors and provide a platform for discussion and feedback on the preliminary findings of the CIVRA study, as well as the adaptation prioritisation methodology.
The CIVRA study and the adaptation prioritisation methodology are the cornerstones to the development of the Tuvalu National Adaptation Plan (NAP), a crucial instrument for the survival of the low-lying atoll nation, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change.
“A key component of the Tuvalu NAP project is the implementation of a CIVRA. SPREP engaged CSIRO and its partner Deloitte to carry out this component, and this week we will be presenting the key findings of this study to the target sectors,” said Ms Filomena Nelson, SPREP Climate Change Adaptation Adviser.
Climate hazards and hazard-based impacts, as well as vulnerability which will include the impacts of climate change through the lens of the people and communities, are encompassed in the CIVRA, as explained by CSIRO’s Dr. Geoff Gooley.
“Our aim for this week is to present these preliminary findings to our stakeholders and to get some initial feedback from them which will help us put together the final CIVRA report. This report will then be passed on to the NAP Project team and will be used to inform the development of the NAP for Tuvalu,” Dr. Gooley added.
From the CIVRA, options for adaptations will be developed for all sectors. The adaptation prioritisation methodology will identify which adaptation measures are urgently needed to address the impacts of climate change, and this will then feed into the development of a NAP that is inclusive of survival adaptation pathways and sectoral or system-based measures such as monitoring and evaluation, communications and engagement strategy, and financing strategy.
Ms. Pepetua Latasi, Director of the Department of Climate Change, stated that while Tuvalu as an LDC has already prepared its National Adaptation Programme of Action which focused on more urgent adaptation needs, it is now embarking on the development of its NAP which will look at medium to long-term adaptation plans.
“It’s very important for us to have national planning to develop our NAP in order to highlight the priorities of the government of Tuvalu and help capture the needs and vulnerabilities that each community will identify so that the NAP captures the lived realities of people living not only in Funafuti but in all eight islands of Tuvalu,”
“It is our goal to utilise the science that is available to ensure that whatever options we identify to address the risks of climate change are backed by the best available science so that it will be packaged together as a plan that will enable the generations of today and the next ten to twenty years to live and adapt to climate change,” she concluded.
The Tuvalu NAP Project Management Unit and its partners in SPREP, CSIRO and GHD are aiming to complete the development of the NAP by the end of 2024.
“For this project, we are not starting from scratch. We are merely building on what’s already been established,” Ms. Nelson added.
The Tuvalu NAP Stakeholder Workshop is being held at the Tomasi Puapua Convention Centre in Funafuti from 25 – 27 March 2024.
For more information, please contact Ms. Filomena Nelson at [email protected].