As part of Pacific RISA’s UNEP CIS-Pac5 research program on climate information and early warning systems, the team convened a Sector-based Climate Services and Coordination Workshop in Koror, Palau from February 26 to March 1, 2024. The workshop was funded by the Green Climate Fund and hosted by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific RISA, and the University of Hawaii in partnership with the Palau Ministry of Finance Bureau of Budget and Planning, Palau Office of Climate Change, and the Palau Weather Service Office.

“The challenges of climate change aren’t coming–we are living them”

~President Surangel Whipps of Palau

The workshop aimed to both facilitate the development and delivery of locally relevant and impact-driven climate early warning products to support sector-based decision-making in Palau and foster increased alignment and coordination of climate projects in country, including within the UNEP CIS-Pac5 as well as across other partners, such as the Local 2030 Islands Network.

To develop Climate Early Warning Systems (CLEWS), Pacific RISA followed the Pacific Islands Dialog process that was developed by NOAA in collaboration with USAID throughout the Pacific Islands region. Participants heard stories about climate events and impacts in Palau and engaged in interactive breakout activities to construct historical timelines and maps: creating a dataset of the “where and when” of those events and impacts that would later serve as a template for creating prototypes of sector-specific CLEWS for agriculture and health.

During the week, the Local2030 Islands Network celebrated the launch of a new Palau Green Growth Dashboard, a public-private partnership to track Palau’s progress toward locally-relevant sustainable development goals. Pacific RISA collaborators from the University of Guam’s Center for Island Sustainability and Guam Green Growth were present for the launch and were central to the development of Palau’s dashboard. Additional workshop sessions were dedicated to presentations by partners in the UNEP CIS-Pac5 program and discussions around how to harmonize data, as a means to support communication, coordination, and collaboration across projects and initiatives within Palau, and elevate the important messages from the week. Throughout the workshop, local artist Janine Tewid created a live graphic interpretation of the CLEWS discussions, which was unveiled at a reception held the evening of February 29.

Featured image: the Rock Islands of Palau. Photo by Krista Jaspers.