Low lying Pacific countries face escalating coastal inundation risk from wave driven flooding, storm surges and sea level rise, yet have historically lacked forecasting tools calibrated to their near shore, reef dominated physics and constrained by the absence of high performing computing infrastructure. Cook Islands, Niue, Palau, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu have been supported through development, upgrades and operationalisation of ocean forecasting and coastal inundation early warning capability purpose built for this context. The session will connect the scientific innovation to its on the ground application across the Pacific SIDS and to the community engagement. The side event will showcase a scientifically validated ocean forecasting and coastal inundation modelling frameworks and Ocean Portals co-developed with Pacific island nations under the UNEP CIS-Pac5 programme, financed by the Green Climate Fund, "Enhancing Climate Information and Knowledge Services for resilience in the 5 island countries of the Pacific Ocean. The session demonstrates how ocean science is translating into life-saving early warning coverage, informed coastal hazard management and community engagement. The session will bring to the forefront scientific presentations from technical experts and country voices from participating nations to share national experiences applying the framework and co-designing solutions with their communities. The event highlights Pacific-led science and community co-design as a credible, replicable model for ocean and climate services across Small Island Developing States.

Venue

Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion

Speakers

Country representatives, UNEP, GCF, Pacific Community, IPCC