Workshop on Pilot Program for Climate Resilience Featured
2 June 2016. The Government of Tonga hosts a four-day workshop on Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) Results Monitoring, Reporting and Stakeholder Engagement from 1-2 June 2016 at Tungi Colonnade, Nuku’alofa, Tongatapu and 3-4 June, 2016 at Puataukanave Hotel, Neiafu, Vava’u.
The workshop was officially opened by the Honorable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Climate Change (MEIDECC), Honorable Siaosi Sovaleni.
Team from the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) led by Ms Rachael Allen (Senior Program Coordinator for PPCR) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) led by Mr. Jude Kohlhase (team leader for Tonga SPCR) attended this workshop. Representatives from Samoa, Papua New Guinea, government ministries and NGOs were also participated in the workshop.
The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience is funded under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and it is implemented by the Multi-lateral Development Banks (MDBs). This program was established to assist developing countries transform to a climate resilient development path consistent with poverty reduction and sustainable development goals.
The Pacific region is one of the two regional and nine country pilots under this program. The Pacific PPCR has 4 components which are country activities in three countries including Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Samoa and a regional track component.
Tonga’s PPCR is in two phases. Phase I is the formulation of a Strategic Program for Climate Resilience and Phase 11 is the implementation of Phase 1 (SPCR).
CIF has granted Tonga USD$20M to implement its SPCR . Government of Tonga’s contribution to this program is USD$3.88M. The Asian Development Bank is the leading agency for Tonga’s SPCR.
Honorable Sovaleni has conveyed the appreciation of the Government of Tonga to CIFs and ADB for providing resources to implement Tonga’s SPCR and for making this workshop possible.
He stated that Tonga has been adversely affected by climate change with major environmental, economic and social consequences including impacts on agricultural production, food security, water and coastal resources and its current climate change and related programs, projects and activities mainly focus on reducing vulnerability hence increasing its resilience to climate change impacts.
Hon. Sovaleni also stated that the total greenhouse gas emission (GHG) of Tonga is negligible compared to the global emission however Tonga has set its national targets to mitigate its own GHG emission.
“Tonga commits to implement our actions outlined in the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) with our target to deliver 70% access to Renewable Energy by 2030. Tonga is also committed to the implementation of its Climate Change Policy that was approved by Cabinet in February 2016 in working towards achieving a resilient Tonga by 2035.
Tonga is the first country in the Pacific to develop a Joint National Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management. Tonga also commits to the formulation of its Joint National Action Plan on climate change adaptation and disaster risk management 2016-2026 by 2016 to build on the ongoing work of JNAP 2010-2015.” he said.
Tonga’s SPCR consists of the following major outputs; mainstreaming climate resilience into development planning of key vulnerable sectors,improving capacity to monitor and manage Tonga climate data and information, establishing a sustainable financing mechanism to support community based climate change adaptation responsive investments and increasing eco-system resilience and climate infrastructure investments.
Amongst these outputs there are priority activities under each output including; climate change Trust Fund (CCTF) development and management, management and monitoring of community projects financed by CCTF, climate proofing of critical infrastructures such as climate proofing schools, post disaster access roads and evacuation road,hahake coastal protection, relocation of Lifuka hospital,outer island marine landing, improvement of the National Meteorological and Coastal Monitoring and Data dissemination and Early Warning System, mangrove inventory and re-plantation program, climate Change Scholarship Program, professional capacity building and training program and the establishment of special managed areas (SMAs) under fisheries in 7 pilot communities in Vava’u
The workshop was organized by the Government of Tonga in close collaboration with CIFs-ADB. It will continue on in Vava’u and visitation to program pilot communities will be also conducted.
Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications
3 comments
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Just an afterthought. The search for the so-called renewable energy is really a search for new ways of utilising energy as opposed to the old ways of using it. In actuality, it means readily, conciously searching for new ways of utilising energy in opposition to seeking new forms of energy, in view of the historical fact that energy cannot be created nor destroyed but it can only be changed from one form into another. The search for new ways of using energy is synonymous with the search for symmetrical, harmonious and beautiful ways of utilising it, in contrast to the old ways, polemically albeit asymmetrically arranged in disharmonious, disproportional or unbalance modes.
'Ofa ma'u moe na'una'u,
Hufanga -
In fact, the ancient plural, cultural, collectivistic, holistic and circular Tongan concept and practice fonua (as are the variations honua, hanua, vanua, fanua, fenua, enua, henua and whenua within and across the Great Moana Nui) recognises the inseparably mutual, symbiotic coexistence of society and ecology -- including all living and non-living things -- where fonua is utilised merely as a tool for sustaining and maintaining a balance ecosystem or human-environment partnership.
In a way, this is in stark contrast to the singular, technoteleological, individualistic, evolutionistic and linear Western-driven, UN-led new doctrine of sustainable development (fakalakalaka mapule'ia) -- where the society or human beings are elevated over and above the ecology or environment -- strictly informed by a true sense of anthropocentrism, rationalism and functionalism.
'Ofa fau moe 'anau ma'u,
Hufanga -
A successful recovery from the impending if not doomed environmental crisis generally and climate (and by the same token weather) change particularly is inextricably linked to the behaviour of energy (ivi), which physics tells us that it (that is, energy as a spatial-substantial entity) can neither be created nor destroyed but it can only transform from one form to another (where form is a temporal entity, that is, temporal-formal entity).
It generally follows that the problems (of climate and weather change) thus far encountered the world over (our common habitat Global Village, Spaceship, Earth) boil down to the human arrangement of energy, where it is condensed here and rarefied there, thereby causing its condensation or concentration as opposed to its rarefaction or expansion, informed by asymmetry and disharmony.
A successful mediation is called for strictly requiring both theoretical and practical rigour, where the inherent conflicts are transformed from a condition of chaos (felekeu) to a state of order (maau) through sustained symmetry (tatau) and harmony (potupotutatau) to create beauty -- that is -- a balance ecosystem or human-environment partnership.
Our ancient tufunga fonua (material artists of socio-ecological engineering) and faiva tauhifonua (performance artists of society-ecology-keeping) created the concept and practice of fonua (defined by the dialectical yet historical relationships between "person" / "time" and "place" / "space") for this expressed purpose, as in the first fonua (foetus and placenta), second fonua (people and environment / land) and third fonua (dead and burial places), defining birth (fa'ele) through life (mo'ui) to death (mate) as eternal process, cycle and exchange.