The Fiji National Climate Change Summit held in Levuka from the 8th to 10th September was attended by MES staff Kolinio Mataiyaga and Marica Vakacola. This 2015 summit was the first to be held in Central/Eastern Division’s Maritime Group and affords the opportunity to involve and engage the community, business sector and civil society groups on Ovalau and neighboring islands. The summit was openened by the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama.
This is the third year, for the National Climate change summit, with the first summit held in Narewa, Nadi, the second was held in Labasa. The climate change summit provides the platform for revising the outcomes of the 2013 summit, share information with community and public, private stakeholders on the on-going commitment of government in addressing climate change. The theme for this years National Climate Change Summit was Building climate resilience through genuine community and stakeholder partnerships.
Over the two days in Levuka, plenary sessions and discussions engaged various stakeholders committed to building climate resilient communities. Topic of discussions began with Fiji’s mitigation Contribution – Initiative and actors, followed by mainstreaming and integrating climate change and disaster risk reduction in development on the second day. This panel was then divided into two workshop session on developing climate adaptation and disaster management plans for communities, with the second workshop session on incorporating cultural heritage and traditional knowledge in resilience building.
Reconvening after lunch break on the second day, panel discussions continued on the topic preparing for climate change/disaster induced relocation, linking disaster risk reduction to adaptation and development to address the underlying risk factors, the third workshop was on adaptation and disaster risk reduction as an inclusive process involving multi stakeholders (with a particular focus on marginalised groups such as people living with disabilities, women and youth.
The summit was also used to introduce Fiji’s development approach in light of the recently launched Green Growth Framework and also the iTaukei translation of the National Climate change Policy.
MES technical officer Kolinio Mataiyaga reflected on the summit as an eye opener on the real impacts of climate change faced by vulnerable communities and the summit also created a platform to establish network with other working partners.
