Tonga signs partnership with Korean climate research centre

​Tonga strengthened its relationship with Korea’s APEC Climate Center with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Nukualofa on Wednesday.

The partnership will see greater co-operation in how to link climate science with other sectors such as agriculture, health and disaster risk management. It builds on previous exchanges including a Tonga delegation visit to the centre in Korea in January.

Deputy Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said the memorandum symbolised the trust they had in each other. He said after an initial discussion regarding how to link climate and agriculture, they started talking about involving other sectors.

“We came up with a tangible benefit for Tonga and I am thankful to Dr Jung for following up on that discussion,” said Sovaleni, who is also the Minister for Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communication.

He also urged other Pacific Island nations to form a similar relationship.

Deputy Minister for the Korea Meteorological Administration Hong-Sang Jung said the recent visit to APEC Climate Center showed the level and “passion and commitment” from Tonga government officials.

“I would like to extend this outreach to Pacific Island nations and sincerely hope it is a great opportunity for more information sharing,” said Jung.

One of the projects that has already been completed is the digitisation of Tonga’s agricultural data. There is now ongoing work to develop crop models for Tonga, and create a crop calendar of selected crops for farmers.