A partnership agreement was signed yesterday between the New Zealand Government and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) for the Weather Ready Pacific (WRP) Programme, a decadal response to enable Pacific Islands to better anticipate, and respond to, high-impact and extreme weather events.
The NZD 20 million investment from New Zealand will support the establishment and implementation of the Inception Phase of WRP. This follows the initial investment of AUD 30 million from the Government of Australia. Other partners are also coming to the table through a collective partnership approach including the United Kingdom, Japan and the Climate Risk and Early Warning System (CREWS) in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization.
As part of New Zealand’s support for the WRP Programme, an NZD 4 million weather radar was launched on Monday. Speaking at the event, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister, the Right Hon. Winston Peters said, “The radar is the first of its kind in the Pacific and will provide Tonga with the ability to give communities critical early warnings and mitigate the impacts of high-risk weather”.
“We were starkly reminded of the vulnerability of our Pacific communities on the opening day of the Pacific Island Forum Leaders meeting with extreme rainfall and a 6.9 magnitude earthquake as we gathered to launch the new weather radar. It served as a powerful reminder that the challenges we face are not hypothetical or distant—they are immediate, real, and demand urgent attention,” said Tonga’s Acting Director for Meteorology, Mr Laitia Fifita.
The WRP has a goal of USD 191 million for ten years to implement the work for which long-term investment is required for sustainability. The programme was endorsed in 2021 by Pacific Islands Leaders to reduce the human and economic costs of severe weather, water and ocean events across Pacific Island communities, by strengthening national meteorological and hydrological organisations and their partnerships with national disaster management organisations.
“We are grateful to New Zealand for its strong support to Weather Ready Pacific. This is a wonderful new modality for a programmatic approach to climate financing determined and shaped by the needs and voices of those who are asking for the support,” said Mr Sefanaia Nawadra, Director General of SPREP.
“Approaches like this empowers our communities to take the lead in defining their own paths to resilience and sustainability. It is crucial that we continue to innovate in this way, ensuring that our efforts are truly responsive to the unique needs of those most affected by climate change,” Mr Nawadra added.
Economic losses from cyclones and flooding in the South Pacific region in 2020 were around USD 1 Billion with at least 71 lives lost, more recent estimates put the average annual loss in GDP in the South Pacific for a natural disaster to be around 14.4% with a 34% likelihood of a natural disaster occurring in any year. Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016 affected over half of Fiji’s population resulting in USD 900 million in losses whilst Tropical Cyclone Pam in 2015 reduced Vanuatu’s GDFP by 60%.
Strengthening the capacities of our Pacific Meteorological Services through the Weather Ready Pacific Program is vital to ensuring that our region participates in and benefits from advances in forecast and warning systems that should ultimately enable increased accuracy, geographic specificity and lead time of forecasts.
The Japanese government through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide in kind support to the WRP Programme through the building of two Regional Training Collaboration and Awareness Centres in Nadi, Fiji.
The Weather Ready Pacific is an initiative through the Pacific Meteorological Council and was endorsed by Pacific Islands leaders in 2021. In 2023, the decadal program of investment was listed as a partnership of priority under the Pacific Partnerships for Prosperity initiative endorsed at the Fifty-Second Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in the Cook Islands.
SPREP is the Secretariat of the Pacific Met Desk Partnership and the Pacific Met Council.