Pacific climate change study gains $4.5m
The Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies (MBC) at the University of Canterbury (UC) has been awarded $4.5 million by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) for a major climate change project in the Pacific in partnership with the University of the South Pacific (USP).
Professor Ratuva is an interdisciplinary scholar and Director of UC’s MacMillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies, who is co-leading a project with the University of the South Pacific to take stock of climate change effects and social resilience in the Pacific.
The project partnership started last year during a visit to USP by a UC team led by Vice-Chancellor Professor Cheryl de la Rey, leading to an agreement between the two universities.
The project will be a massive interdisciplinary undertaking involving teams of climate change scientists, social scientists, indigenous scholars, regional organisations, international agencies, governments, civil society organisations and community networks. It will conclude in time for the 2023 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) global climate change stocktake.
“The high profile and high policy impact project positions UC as a global hub for interdisciplinary climate change expertise and a world leader in applied policy research on the subject,” Professor Ratuva says.
The project will feed into the global climate change assessment led by the UNFCCC and mandated by Article 14 of the Paris Agreement for periodic stocktake of global climate change.