The University of Fiji, in recognition of the importance of our Presidency of COP23 and the impacts of climate change on the Small Island Developing States, will host a second awareness session tomorrow.

The session, organised by the School of Science and Technology at UniFiji, is part of a monthly awareness campaign until the COP23 meeting in November.

Priyatma Singh, from the Department of Science, says that the session would be conducted by Herve Damlamian from the Secretariat of the South Pacific Community (SPC).

“The second seminar session will be delivered by Mr Herve Damlamian who is a senior specialist, Oceanographic from SPC. He has vast experience in Coastal Oceanography and will be speaking on the topic of coastal hazards in the Pacific,” she said.

“The reason we are focusing on this aspect is because the entire Pacific region is highly vulnerable to climate change and it is likely to affect the coastal resources in many ways. Changes in the climate patterns, such as an increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones, may lead to high incidence of coastal inundation and erosion events.”

She said Mr Herve had a lot of experience working with a range of coastal management and coastal hazard related projects.

“His talk will provide the audience with an understanding of the two major regional coastal hazards; inundation and erosion,” she said.

Ms Singh said people in the Pacific needed to be aware of the coastal hazards as sea-level rise was likely to increase coastal erosion and inundation. The university will host a third seminar session leading up to COP23 and United Nations Ocean Conference– Facilitated by Department of Science in collaboration with the Pacific Islands Development Forum Secretariat (PIDF) on May 19.

Source: University of Fiji

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