Coastweeks, American Samoa. Source: American Samoa Coastal Management Program. Coastweeks Program in American Samoa offers the opportunity to build awareness about issues affecting the climate-sensitive marine and coastal environments.

Climate varies greatly by location and timescale and the U.S. Pacific Islands extend across six different time zones, with islands on both sides of the International Date Line and the equator.  The climates are very different in each of these places.  To understand these effects in each place, it is important for people to develop climate literacy: an awareness of local climate, historical climate patterns, climate variability, extreme events, climate-related impacts future climate trends, and ways that managers can use this information to better inform their decisions. 

The Pacific RISA climate program aims to build awareness and support education and training of climate knowledge among different groups of stakeholders.  The program has been involved in the development of a climate training institute and resource materials with regional colleagues and partners. The stakeholder workshops and interactions include presentations that intend to build awareness.  Many of the RISA partnering agencies and organizations concerned with climate variability and change have developed educational information and outreach materials referenced in this website.

Climate Glossary – Several documents and websites provide glossaries of terminology related to climate, impacts, and adaptation strategies.  The glossary included here merges several of these terms that relate to the context of climate in the Pacific and have been taken primarily from US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Climate Educational Resource Websites

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Education: Advancing Environmental Literacy

Climate Change and Our Planet

Environmental Protection Agency educational materials on climate change.  The website looks at potential impacts in different sectors and environments and provides tools and information for helping to prepare for climate changes.

Climate Change

Climate Variability and Change Newsletters

Pacific ENSO Update – The quarterly newsletter from the Pacific ENSO Applications Climate Center provides forecasts for the US Pacific Islands on rainfall, sea level variation, and storms.  The newsletter usually contains additional information and deeper explanations about climate and decision support tools.

Island Climate Update – The newsletter developed by NIWA with collaboration from the meteorological services and regional organizations services non-US Pacific Islands.  The newsletter covers additional topics each month that provide insight into climate variability, climate change, preparation for extreme events, and other topics that improve the understanding of climate in the Pacific.

Climate Training Institute

Pacific Island Training Institute on Climate and Extreme Events, 15-28 June 2004, conducted by the University of the South Pacific (USP), Pacific Center for Environment and Sustainable Development (PACE-SD), the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and the East-West Center (EWC).   

Resource materials for the training institute:
Presentation of the Institute (.pdf document, 177Kb); The document is also provided for download here.
Booklet (.pdf document, 363Kb); The resource materials used for the training course are available in this document for download here.

Climate-Related Workshops

Bangkok Symposium on Climate and Extreme Events in Asia Pacific: Enhancing Resilience and Improving Decision Making - Executive Summary, by Eileen L. Shea and A.R. Subbiah, 2004. Symposium presentations and reports can be found online on the East-West Center’s website.

ENSO Impact on Water Resources in the Pacific Region Workshop Report, Tanoa International Hotel, Nadi 19-23 October 1999, SOPAC Miscellaneous Report 336. Sponsors included the British High Commission and NOAA Office of Global Programs, with preparation and materials coordinated with the Pacific ENSO Applications Climate Center (PEAC), the Fiji Meteorological Service, and SOPAC’s Disaster Management Unit (with the UN South Pacific Regional Disaster Reduction Programme) and Water Resource Unit. The workshop involved training sessions and simulated interaction among meteorologists and climatologists, hydrologists and water resource managers, and disaster managers to improve the use climate forecasts and build communication among these groups to improve decision-making.

Climate lecture, FSM. Source: PEAC. Pacific ENSO Applications Climate Center (PEAC) staff giving a climate lecture at a college in Federated States of Micronesia.

Climate Variability and Change Workshops conducted in 2005 and 2006 in the US Pacific Islands.  See Stakeholder Dialogue section of the website for access to presentations and workshop materials.

Adaptation Strategy Guides and Manuals

Capacity-Building for the Development of Adaptation Measures in Pacific Island Countries (CBDAMPIC) – With funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has developed pilot projects in four Pacific communities to identify adaptation measures and has used the experiences to develop guidelines.  Information is available through SPREP’s Climate Change Portal. The draft Community Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment and Action Guideline from SPREP is available for download here as a pdf file.

Preparing for Climate Change: A Guide for Local, Regional, and State Governments was developed by the Climate Impacts Group (a Regional Integrated Science and Assessment program) in the Pacific Northwest to help governments begin to develop adaptation measures.

Adapting to Climate Variability and Change: A Guidance Manual for Development Planning, August 2007, US Agency for International Development.  The document is available for download, click here.

Surviving climate change in small islands: a guidebook.  E.L Tompkins, 2005, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/surviving.pdf.  This guidebook provides information for planning adaptation strategies for small islands and coastal communities in preparing for the impacts of climate change.