As climate storm gathers, Pacific islands race to set up warning systems

One of the highlights of a visit to Palau’s stunning Rock Islands is the chance to swim with swarms of golden jellyfish.  Harmless to humans, the jellyfish, which number in the millions, are known for migrating daily from east to west, following the sun’s movement in the sky.   Their habitat, Ongeim’l Tketau Jellyfish Island, is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major tourist draw.   But like the rest of Palau, an island nation of 18,000 people that relies heavily on tourism, the area is dangerously exposed to the tropical cyclones that routinely sweep across the South Pacific.  To counter that threat, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is helping Palau to build several automated weather stations and float a buoy that tracks the height of waves. The equipment will allow government officials to monitor approaching storms, issue alerts to tour operators and plan rescue operations.  “Reliable information about weather and climate is essential,” says Jennifer Olegeriil, Director of the Koror State Government’s Department of Conservation and Law Enforcement, which manages the Rock Islands. “It is a key component in how we plan our daily operations.”  In Pacific states, like the Cook Islands, climate change is threatening the coral reefs that underpin fisheries. New early warning systems are designed to help communities detect threats to these undersea cities. Photo by AFP/Marty Melville  Extreme weather, such as cyclones, flooding and drought, have surged five-fold in the past 50 years, a jump experts say is being driven by climate change. Small island developing nations, like Palau, are particularly vulnerable to this climatic upheaval. Storms and rising seas are eroding coastlines, buffeting low-lying coastal communities and sending seawater streaming into already scant sources of drinking water, like aquifers. At the same time, even in the tropics, droughts are becoming more common.  To build resilience to this new normal, UNEP is helping the Cook Islands, Niue, Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu to generate high quality climate information and improve early warning systems for multiple hazards.   Financed by the Green Climate Fund, the five-year programme will help government meteorologists better forecast extreme weather and issue alerts to communities.  Related Press release New UNEP programme to support climate resilience in Pacific Islands through early warning systems