PACIFIC weather services have raised $34 million of the $200 million sought for the Weather-Ready Pacific programme, while tight operating budgets and declining observation networks threaten the systems needed to deliver forecasts and cyclone warnings.
Salesa Nihmei, director of the Climate Science and Information Programme at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), said Pacific governments were being asked to back a 10-year plan to strengthen national meteorological services from 2027 to 2036.
Nihmei said government operating budgets left meteorological services with little for equipment, travel and maintenance after salaries and utility bills were paid.
He said 70 per cent to 80 per cent of government operating funds went to salaries, while utilities consumed much of the remaining operational budget, leaving “probably only 10 percent” for other needs. “That’s why our networks are declining,” he said.
The region is considering solar power and electric vehicles to reduce electricity and fuel costs, freeing up money for other operational needs, he said. A proposal on that approach was being brought to the Pacific Meteorological Council for discussion.
Building Pacific capability
Some Pacific countries cannot produce their own forecasts, Nihmei said, relying instead on Fiji’s regional meteorological centre in Nadi, which issues warnings during tropical cyclones. The aim is to build countries’ capacity to produce forecasts and warnings themselves, he said, though doing so will require additional staffing and government budgets.
The regional effort also faces a shortage of specialist expertise, including radar engineers, professional forecasters and Pacific climate modellers. Staff turnover compounds the problem: “When you train, people get trained, they move to another place,” Nihmei said.
Improving observations is another priority. Nihmei said the region needed good-quality data and was working towards a shared forecasting platform in Fiji, alongside investment in tools and capacity.
He said Weather-Ready Pacific was designed around priorities set by the region, with external partners contributing expertise and funding within that framework. “We are setting the agenda, and they were coming to fit in,” he said.
Fiji and other partners provide vital support, he said, but the longer-term goal is for more national services to forecast and communicate warnings themselves.
Regional work also seeks to connect scientific forecasts with traditional knowledge so communities can understand and act on information in local terms.
Nihmei said the region’s longer-term ambition was that “no lives will be lost” and that people would understand technical climate terms such as El Niño.
Ministers back coordinated Pacific meteorology framework.
Pacific ministers responsible for meteorology endorsed the One Pacific Meteorology Programme Framework earlier last month at the PMM meeting in Nukualofa, Tonga, supporting stronger coordination among national, regional and international organisations and development partners, according to an adopted ministerial declaration.
The framework is intended to make investments complementary, use resources efficiently, minimise duplication and build sustainable capabilities within Pacific island countries and territories, the declaration said. Ministers described the statement as a collective expression of political will and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening national meteorological services.
The declaration says the framework’s concept was endorsed in principle at PMC-8. Tonga’s prime minister and minister responsible for meteorology hosted the meeting, with support from SPREP.
