Report details climate change in Pacific

Updated December 07, 2011 21:42:55

Photo: Tuvaluans fear rising sea levels will render their Polynesian archipelago uninhabitable. (Torsten Blackwood: AFP)

A new report shows for the first time detailed projections of the effects of climate change on the Pacific's 15 small island states.

The three-year study by Australia's CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology predicts increased air and sea temperatures, more extreme rainfall days, a more acidic ocean and rising sea levels
It is the first time the island states have received an official climate change projection.
Dr Gillian Chambers from the CSIRO says the Pacific islands are facing major challenges.
"We're looking at air and sea surface temperatures which are going to continue to rise over this century," she said.
"In particular there's going to be large increases in the number of very hot days and warmer nights as well.
"If we're looking at rainfall, generally we see that basically there's going to be an increase in rainfall over the region and perhaps what's most significant is that there's going to be more of the really heavy rainfall events."
Dr Chambers warns the changes will lead to an increase in ocean acidification and rising sea levels.
And she says there is likely to be fewer tropical cyclones, but "the ones we do get will be more intense".

Audio: Pacific islanders facing dramatic change (The World Today)

Dr Chambers says Pacific island states are especially vulnerable because they rely on the sea for the livelihoods.
"Particularly if we're looking at the oceans, then a large percentage of the populations in the Pacific islands, they depend on what we call subsistence farming, a subsistence style of living, which is very much dependent on the land and the resources and to the sea and its resources as well," she said.
"So there's already a very delicate balance between what they take and what's available on land and in the sea and many of the changes we're seeing in the climate and the ocean, it's sort of tipping that balance, certainly not in the favour of the Pacific islanders."

Gradual process

The idea is that the report will empower the island states to adapt to the effects of climate change. Considering the size of their economies it will be difficult, but Dr Chambers says they have time.
"What the Pacific climate change science program has done is really provide them with the sound scientific information, the best that we have now, as to what's going to happen around 2030, around the middle of the century and around the end of the century," she said.
"That information then has to be translated into how this is going to affect the Pacific - say a taro crop or a banana crop or an orange crop.
"So there's a lot more steps that have to be taken by the Pacific island nations in order to build these projected climate changes into their future development."
She says the report's results are generally in line with global projections and will help island nations adapt to climate change.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-07/report-details-climate-change-in-pacific/3717694