By Matthew Vari of South Pacific Courier (Post Courier)

18 August, 2017, Honiara, Solomon Islands, PMC-4 – No one single country can address the impacts of natural hazards alone.

That was message conveyed by the government of Papua New Guinea in its official statement to the Second Pacific Ministerial Meeting on Meteorology (PMMM2).

Representing the Ministry responsible for the PNG National Weather Office, Deputy Transport Secretary, Kevin Luana, told the meeting of the need for a united front under regional organisations like the Pacific Meteorological Council (PMC).

“It is clear that the resources to counter impacts of natural hazards are scarce and beyond the capacity of individual Pacific Island countries to handle and therefore calls for unified, strategic and well coordinated efforts to mitigate negative impacts and leverage on potential opportunities,” Mr Luana said in his statement.

Mr Luana told those present that the PNG government was very impressed at the level of organisation and representation in the PMC.

“Papua New guinea is extremely awed by the level of organization by our Meteorological and Hydrological services through the establishment of the Pacific Meteorological Council under the guidance of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).”

“We congratulate the PMC and we believe that your level of cohesive organisation including to ensure that there are no gaps in the delivery of sustainable weather, climate, water and until recently ocean services for a resilient Pacific is no doubt attracting donors and development partners as they aspire to be part of the success story.”

“Papua New Guinea therefore wishes to also be part of the success story of the PMC led Meteorological and Hydrological services,” Mr Luana said.

Mr Luana also extended an open invitation to PMC member countries to join have the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), of which PNG is a member.

He stressed that his government’s involvement with RIMES would not affect its continued participation with the PMC.

“PNG recently joined the RIMES group of countries in establishing our Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning Centre.”

“Indeed, whatever products that will be produced through that Centre will be made available to our SPREP member countries with no strings attached as another of the decision support tools to be at the disposal of the Meteorological Services in PMC member countries.” – #PMC4 #PacificMet

The Fourth Pacific Meteorological Council is being held in Honiara, Solomon Islands from the 14 – 17 August co-hosted by the government of Solomon Islands, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This will followed by the Second Pacific Meteorological Ministers Meeting (PMMM) on the 18 of August.

The PMC and PMMM is supported by the Government of Solomon Islands, SPREP, WMO, Government of Australia through the Climate and Oceans Support Programme (COSPPac) and Pacific Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning Programme (PACCSAP), Government of Finland, National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United Nations Development Programme through the Resilience in the Pacific (SIDS) project.

The PMC consists of members of the Pacific National Meteorological and Hydrological Services supported by its technical partners, regional organisations, non-government organisations and private sectors.

This article was developed by a Pacific Media Team of Reporters currently providing coverage on the Fourth Pacific Meteorological Council in Solomon Islands. This activity coordinated by SPREP is supported by a partnership between the Government of Solomon Islands, SPREP, Australia funded project (Climate and Oceans Support Program (COSPPac) and UNDP Disaster for Pacific SIDS (RESPAC) project.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) or the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)both of which provided funding for generating media articles.