Nauru has given its full support for the outcomes of the First Pacific Ministers Meeting on Meteorology and the Nuku’alofa Declaration for Sustainable Weather and Climate Services for a Resilient Pacific.
Minister Aaron Cook attended the first Ministerial meeting of Meteorology Ministers from the Pacific region in Nuku’alofa, hosted by the Government of Tonga last week.
“It is an honour for me to be speaking on the role of national meteorological and hydrological services and their contribution to our sustainable development.
“We do not have an established Meteorology Service in Nauru but it is a priority of our Government. Early this year, our Government approved the establishment of the Meteorology Service, said Minister Cook.
The minister said despite beliefs that Nauru is not accustomed to extreme weather, that belief is now being challenged by disasters that have caused unusual extreme weather conditions.
“Recent experiences with 3m swell have been devastating to our coastline especially the low-lying areas destroying houses and erode about 7km of our coastline. These extreme weather events are unprecedented in Nauru. The damages emphasise the true extent of our vulnerability to extreme events,” Cook told the Ministerial meeting.
Aaron Cook also thanked donor partners for their significant funding contribution to further improve the capabilities of Pacific meteorological services to better forecast weather and climate.
“We continue to seek the support of our development partners for this initiative and look forward in working closely with SPREP and WMO to ensure its effective implementation (establishing the NMS) that will be an important milestone for Nauru, said Minister Cook.