Plastic debris on Pacific Islands: Ecological and health implications

© 2019 Plastic debris is a worldwide problem. This is particularly acute in the Pacific region, where its scale is a reason for serious concerns. There is an obvious need for studies to assess the extent to which plastic debris affects the Pacific. Therefore, this research aims to address this need by undertaking a systematic assessment of the ecological and health impacts of plastic debris on Pacific islands. Using pertinent historical qualitative and quantitative data of the distribution of plastic debris in the region, this study identified pollution and contamination trends and risks to ecosystems, and suggests some measures which may be deployed to address the identified problems. The study illustrates the fact that Pacific Island States are being disproportionately affected by plastic, and reiterates that further studies and integrated strategies are needed, involving public education and empowerment, governmental action, as well as ecologically sustainable industry leadership. It is also clear that more research is needed in respect of developing alternatives to conventional plastic, by the production of bio-plastic, i.e. plastic which is produced from natural (e.g. non-fossil fuel-based sources) materials, and which can be fully biodegradable

Professionalising the 'resilience' sector in the Pacific Islands region: formal education for capacity building

Increasingly practitioners and policy-makers recognise the importance of integrating disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation (CCA). This approach has been adopted by the European Union Pacific Technical Vocational Education and Training on Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Adaptation Project (EU PacTVET) project. A key barrier to improving national resilience to disaster risk and climate change impacts has been identified as a lack of capacity and expertise resulting from the absence of sustainable accredited and quality-assured training programmes. TVET modules and tools developed under the EU PacTVET project will establish a community of practitioners supporting community resilience in Oceania

Resilience in education: An example from primary school in Fiji and technical vocational education and training

In the Pacific, the capacity of curriculum writers for integrating the content of climate change into their curricula and/or taught Resilience [Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) & Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)] in education is limited. This paper described the findings of a 2018 study on the integration of climate change into primary and secondary schools’ curricula and taught resilience in education in TVET. It involves teachers (n = 30) from Kadavu and Levuka islands, curriculum writers and editors from the Ministry of Education, GIZ, SPC, and USP—in Fiji. An exploratory design was used to explore the curricula for Fiji and the EU PacTVET project at SPC. Information was collected from workshops and training events, interviews and project documents. Using BEKA (Benchmarking, Evidencing, Knowing, Applying) and the concept of ako (e.g. to study or educate), a model of climate change and resilience in education was designed as part of this research to help Pacific schools with their curricula. These results indicate how behavioural changes may shape Resilience, thus placing them in a better position to achieve the UNFCCC, the SDGs, the Sendai Framework and the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific (FRDP) targets and objectives by 2030 and beyond

Household energy usage, indoor air pollution and health

It seems likely that households have used energy for cooking for as long as there have been households. Globally, until the industrial revolution, this would have been principally woodfuel, agricultural waste (e.g. straw), dried dung and charcoal, with some regions relying on coal and peat. Archaeological evidence suggests the use of oil lamps for lighting appears to also stretch towards the beginnings of households, with ceramic decorated lamps dating from a few thousand years BC (Cam, 2014). Today, although difficult to estimate because traditional biomass energy use (for cooking and heating) is not accurately captured in energy statistics, bioenergy sources currently supply around 10-13% (1365 to 1775 million tonnes of oil equivalent annually) of the world's primary energy making biomass the world's fourth largest energy source (Hemstock & Singh, 2015; International Energy Agency, 2017). Around 70% (955 to 1242 million tonnes of oil equivalent annually) of this bioenergy use is in developing countries. It is used in the form of traditional woodfuel (fuelwood and charcoal), agricultural residues and dung to provide domestic energy services, mostly for cooking, by burning on open fires in 41% (Bonjour et at., 2013) of households in the world. These energy sources, along with coal and peat in some areas, are often inefficiently used and can be environmentally detrimental. They are deleterious to health when used traditionally and in inefficient domestic appliances in poorly ventilated cooking areas. Gender is also an issue as women are usually customarily responsible for cooking, meaning that women and children are at greater risk of exposure to high levels of indoor air pollution. In some least developed countries and in lower income households of developed countries, biomass provides more than 90% of total energy consumption for the populations who live in rural areas (Hemstock & Singh, 2015). A common issue affecting biomass, solid fossil fuel, and oil use for domestic energy services is that the products of combustion (smoke) are harmful to health if inhaled in substantial amounts over long periods of time, often leading to a range of illnesses such as pneumonia and significant impacts on increasing rates of mortality (WHO 2018; cf. Poddar and Chakrabarti 2016). Tragically, indoor air pollution is a key causal factor child pneumonia - a leading cause of death in children under five in many least developed countries, accounting for the deaths of around half a million children under the age of 5 years annually (Mortimer, 2017). This is clearly contrary to SDG3 Good Health and Wellbeing (UN 2015). Issues surrounding indoor air pollution and health are also directly linked to SDG7: Affordable and Clean Energy, which is related to fuel and technology choices available for domestic energy services; which are in turn linked to SDGs 1, 2, 4-6 and 8-13

“God and Tonga Are My Inheritance!”— Climate Change Impact on Perceived Spirituality, Adaptation and Lessons Learnt from Kanokupolu, ‘Ahau, Tukutonga, Popua and Manuka in Tongatapu, Tonga

Climate change is a significant threat to health and well-being, in particular to people’s spiritual well-being, in coastal areas and communities. This paper describes the findings of a 2013 study on impacts of climate change on people’s spiritual well-being in 5 coastal communities in Tongatapu, Tonga: Kanokupolu, ‘Ahau, Tukutonga, Popua and Manuka, using a concurrent convergence parallel triangulation design. Information was collected from a group of 460 participants aged 15–75 via self-administered questionnaire, in-depth interview (IDI), focus group discussions (FGD) and key information interviews (KII). There was a statistically significant difference between people whose spirituality was affected and those unaffected (p < 0.005). People who were worried and whose physical well-being were affected, emerged as the most strongly affected (χ2(4) = 15.780, p < 0.005). The same factor was explored qualitatively using thematic analytical strategy, and concluded that climate change had affected people’s spiritual well-being, negatively. Lessons learnt from this paper will be useful for people invested in policy practice, and pastorate serving the cause of holistic Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) in Tonga: preaching, fasting and praying to God to reverse climate change and its impacts, help State and Church to adapt more effectively and comprehensively

Life cycle assessment of sugarcane growing process in Fiji

Sugarcane is an economically important crop in Fiji as it has considerable impact on the gross domestic product and around 22% (200,000) of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on the sugarcane industry. Considering the importance of this crop, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed in order to understand environmental impacts. In this paper, Fijian sugarcane production was assessed to produce a set of LCA results for defined impacts. The results can be used in subsequent assessments of sugarcane-related products and provide significant insights into the current impacts. Life cycle impact assessment results were generated using CML, ReCiPe and Impact 2002 + models running in Open LCA software using the Ecoinvent database. This connected the system flows and process flow to the product systems in order to calculate the life cycle impact assessment results to be based on local data for comparable and accurate evaluation. Previous analysis revealed that sugarcane production has a considerable impact on global warming potential because of the significant use of fossil fuels in farm machineries and transportation, and the production and use of agrochemicals. Results from this study show that sugarcane production has least impact on ozone layer depletion. Fertilizer production and usage was found to be one of the key issues affecting various impact categories. These results will assist further assessments on the sugarcane products and systems. However, in order to further develop the LCA tool for Fijian agricultural systems, development and testing of life cycle impact assessment models is necessary for Fijian conditions. This will ensure further accuracy of model outputs and supply more realistic and real-time results on emissions