Dave Hebblethwaite is the Water Security and Governance Coordinator of the Pacific Community (SPC), a regional organisation tasked with supporting its 22 Pacific Island Country and Territory members to achieve their development goals through evidence-based action and partnerships for resilience. As the Pacific region’s principal scientific and technical organisation, SPC applies a people-centred approach to science, research and technology across all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), serving its members by harnessing the nexus of climate, ocean, land, water, culture, rights and good governance. Dave has over 30 years’ experience as a natural resources, water security and risk management specialist in the Asia-Pacific region, and has been part of SPC’s Pacific outreach since 2010, leading the design, development and implementation of programmes of action for water security, climate and disaster resilience across all 14 Pacific Island Countries. Based in Fiji and with project teams across the Pacific, Dave’s Disaster and Community Resilience Programme works closely with a growing network of Pacific Island Country counterparts to progress locally-appropriate solutions to some of the world’s most difficult water security, climate and resilience challenges.
Accelerating Pacific action on climate, disaster and water security.
The Pacific is amongst the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts despite Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) accounting for less than 0.03% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. PICs are already disproportionally affected by the water-related impacts of climate change, with existing development challenges compounded by the impact of intensifying weather–related disasters associated with sea-level rise and associated flood, wave, tide, storm surge, wind intensity, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and the potential worsening of water scarcity and drought. Despite the scale of these challenges, effective resilience action is underway across all PICs, supported by approaches to regional collaboration unique to the Pacific. This presentation will provide an overview of local, national and regional efforts to strengthen the resilience of Pacific communities to the impacts of climate change and disaster, with a focus on water security as a critical resilience issue for PICs. A brief outline will be provided of mechanisms for Pacific regional collaboration, as well as examples of locally driven solutions that harness the power of Pacific traditional knowledge, evidence-based decision-making and innovation. The presentation will highlight that, despite progress across all PICs, much more needs to be done to support the development, implementation, sharing and upscaling of locally appropriate and locally owned solutions, including through strengthened knowledge partnerships and improved and accelerated access to investment mechanisms such as climate financing.
