Tokelau calls for support
FOR close to 40 years the tiny island nation of Tokelau has been without a local meteorological service. That’s ever since New Zealand withdrew direct funding for the facility in the 1980s.
With the ever increasing threat of climate change, this remote state has made an urgent plea for donor support in order to strengthen its meteorological and climate related services. In an interview with Islands Business during the Second Pacific Ministerial meeting on Meteorology (PMMM-2), Minister for Climate Change, Natural Resources, Economic Development and Environment, Kelihiano Kalolo, stressed the Tokelau’s need for assistance.
“We need funding because we don’t have the infrastructure, we would like to give the information to our people, and we would like to have the infrastructure for the dissemination of information,” he said.
“Tokelau in any other country is very small without capacity and resource and we would like people to help us and the pacific to work together, after all, climate change is affecting all of us.” Alluding to Tokelau’s lack of climate service, information and documentation, Tokelau’s Manager for the Department of Economic Development, Natural Resources and Environment, Loia Tausi, told the Pacific Meteorology Council (PMC) meeting had laid out specific needs of the Tokelau meteorology services, calling on donors present in the room for support.
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