Call for more investment to cope with extreme weather in Pacific

The President of World Meteorological Office Regional Association 5 has called for significantly more investment into dealing with extreme weather events.

Ofa Fa'anunu was speaking during a meeting of the Pacific Meteorological Council held in Apia earlier this month.

The Samoa meeting brought together directors from the international development agency - the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS), donor and funding agencies as well as the private sector to strengthen climate and weather services in the Pacific.

Mr Fa'anunu, who is also the Director of Tonga's Meteorology office, said the Pacific was at the forefront of the world's changing climate.

"But we feel that the things that are happening today like stronger tropical cyclones, a lot more flooding, a lot more droughts, even tsunami are big issues in the Pacific," he explained.

"These are the things that are affecting us daily. We don't need to wait for 30 years to see the impact, this impact is happening now."

Mr Fa'anunu said a lot more investment was required to deal with current weather patterns.

"Weather, extreme event matters that are happening right now, to get that correct because that is how we are going to save peoples lives, that's how we are going to reduce the impact on the economy, now.

"It's not something that we looking at 20 or 30 years into the future. We have to respond now."

Mr Fa'anunu said the Council would be working towards next year's ministerial meeting, reviewing the investment into this area to date, and looking to upscale the response to extreme weather events.