Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Kiribati has been unable to complete a seawall protecting its international airstrip because of difficulties accessing climate adaptation funds. "This seawall was supposed to be 150 metres long, but because of budgetary constraints the funds that we had for this project [we] only managed to get the seawall to 100 metres," Tessie Lambourne, Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Immigration, said. "Most of the funds are being channelled through multilateral agencies and international financial institutions. It is very hard to access those funds because of the process involved. And with a small administration, already the bureaucracy here is overworked," she explained. Erosion has come to within a few metres of the edge of the runway.

The second annual Multipartite Review (MPR) of the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project has taken place in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The project, implemented by the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and the United Nations Development Programme, helps coordinate national 'on the ground' activities in 13 island countries to assist adaptation to climate change in three main areas – food security and production, coastal management and water resources management. Thanking participants in the review process, Taito Nakalevu, SPREP PACC Project Manager, noted that "the MPR was conducted in excellent pursuit and collaboration and we have a clear direction on how we will take the project from here, we have before us a lot of substantive work and we need to continue to scale up." The Micronesia Leaders Summit recently endorsed the PACC project, which will become a strategy within the Micronesia Challenge. In the Federated States of Micronesia, PACC has helped develop a climate change law in Kosrae that ensures climate change is a consideration in building infrastructure and environmental impact assessment. There are plans to replicate the law in other islands.

Using satellite data alone to assess the difference in aerosol concentrations between the pre-industrial and present-day atmosphere has led to an underestimate of the trend and its impact on climate, according to a new study by scientists in the United States. "We found that using satellite data to try to infer how much radiation is reflected today compared to the amount reflected in the pollution-free pre-industrial atmosphere is very inaccurate," commented Joyce Penner from the University of Michigan. "The satellite estimates are way too small."

The satellite-based estimates have been used to criticize global aerosol model projections. "There are things about the global model that should fit the satellite data but don't, so I won't argue that the models necessarily are correct. But we've explained why satellite estimates and the models are so different," Penner said. "If one uses the relationship between aerosol optical depth — essentially a measure of the thickness of the aerosols — and droplet number from satellites, then one can get the wrong answer by a factor of three to six." She recommends a strategy that uses models in conjunction with the satellite data.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at the Academic Impact Forum in Seoul, called on the world's academic community to find solutions to global hunger and malnutrition, develop ideas to promote sustainable and inclusive development and advance tolerance through mutual respect and understanding. "We need to focus on the links among hunger, water and energy, so that solutions to one can become solutions to all. The academic community can help us connect the dots," he said.

Academic Impact is a global initiative that aligns institutions of higher education with the United Nations to actively support ten universally accepted principles in areas such as human rights, literacy, sustainability and conflict resolution. "Let's call this initiative 'intellectual social responsibility,'" said Ban. "If we can achieve this initiative, we will make the world fairer and wiser." Academic Impact has spawned an offshoot known as Action by Students to Promote Innovation and Reform through Education (ASPIRE).