Suriname addresses climate threat with new agency

Marvin A. Hokstam in AlertNet: Low-lying and heavily forested Suriname, which counts itself among the five nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, has created the country’s first climate-compatible development agency, aimed at bringing together the country’s ministries to deal with climate challenges. “We owe it to our children to prepare ourselves for the effects climate change will have on our country,” President Desi Bouterse said earlier this month at a ceremony marking the launch of the agency.



According to Suriname’s government, sea level rise is expected to bring worsening erosion, large-scale inundation, loss of farmland, a reduction in available freshwater, more drought and extreme rainfall and worsening health challenges to the coastal South American nation.



The new agency aims to coordinate the country’s policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation and forest conservation, and help Suriname win international funding to help it deal with climate impacts and adopt a lower carbon development strategy.



It will also lead the country’s Climate Change Fund, charged with managing funds secured for climate adaptation, and support a Climate Compatible Knowledge Institute, which will give scientific support to climate efforts....



Brokopondo reservoir in Suriname, shot by Mark Ahsmann, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Nausori vulnerable to climate change

Mary Rauto in the Fiji Times online: The protection of key infrastructure from climate change is important. Speaking at the opening of the baseline report presentation and vulnerability assessment for Nausori Urban and peri-urban area, Deputy Director Environment Aminiasi Qariqari said no nation, large or small, wealthy or poor, could escape the impact of climate change.



He said a team of consultants have been conducting research and assessing the Nausori area for its vulnerabilities to climate change, especially during extreme weather conditions. "The protection of key Infrastructure is vital as it supports or interconnects with other sectors within the Nausori urban center and peri-urban project area," he said.



"These other sectors also play a key role in the effects of climate change on the project area and also its exacerbation of climate change impacts." Mr Qariqari said Nausori or the Rewa delta was flood-prone and of concern was the impact of extreme floods on key infrastructure skeleton to the operational well-being of the population of Nausori, its surroundings and those who accessed it.



"The identification of these risks and vulnerable assets with appropriate implementation of adaptation plans before an extreme climatic event occurs would assist in the sustainable existence of the urban centre in the future," he said….



Taken by Merbabu in Fijian village of Navala in the Nausori Highlands in mid 2000, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Developers withdraw opposition to Bay Area planning document that takes sea level rise into account

Julia Scott in the Bay Area News (San Francisco): The Bay Area's most powerful developers, trades councils and chambers of commerce have withdrawn their opposition to a planning document that makes sea level rise part of the approval process for new development at the edges of San Francisco Bay.



The Bay Conservation and Development Commission will discuss the draft Bay Plan Amendment concerning climate change -- the region's first effort to codify the long-term threat of sea level rise as a factor in the development of low-lying areas that surround the bay -- at its meeting Sept. 1.



Despite the announcement that groups like the Bay Planning Coalition and the Bay Area Council are withdrawing opposition, several city officials still have problems with the fact that the BCDC, which normally just regulates public access, is taking on the role of land use arbiter. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent in a letter of objection, and officials in Martinez, Fairfield and Suisun City continue to oppose the amendment.



….BCDC Executive Officer Will Travis said his agency's goals and jurisdiction have been "deeply misunderstood." The commission only has power to deny projects within a 100-foot shoreline band around the bay, and it cannot deny a proposalvbased on whether it adequately addresses the impacts of sea level rise or flooding.



"The logic has been, 'We can't afford to deal with the problem and, therefore, the problem can't exist.' We realize it takes a long time to get an awareness of why these changes are necessary. We're in the first stages of that," said Travis. The Bay Plan Amendment requires projects to submit a risk assessment that takes into account both flood risk and sea level rise, and have a plan to cope with all eventualities…



The Golden Gate Bridge shot by Mila Zinkova, who photographs more than polar scenes. Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Western Australia coastal towns among most at risk in the world

Courtney Trenwith in the Sydney Morning Herald: Towns along Western Australia's coastline are among the most susceptible to climate change in the world with the areas of Mandurah, Busselton, Rockingham and Bunbury under particular threat of flooding and coastal erosion, a new Climate Commission report reveals. The report estimates between 18,700 and 28,900 residential buildings – worth up to $7.7 billion - are at risk of inundation due to rising sea levels.



A further 2100 commercial buildings – more than in all other states – and up to 9100 kilometres of roadway along the coast of the state are also under threat. "A sea-level rise of 50 centimetres will lead to very large increases in the frequency of coastal flooding; flooding that is currently considered a one-in-100 year event would occur every year in most parts of WA and even more frequently in Perth," the report says.



"Flooding events are likely to damage cities, towns and the supporting infrastructure in low-lying coastal areas and will lead to erosion of sandy beaches." Sea levels along the WA west coast have been rising about double the global average since 1990, at between 7.1 millimetres and 7.4 millimetres per year, according to the commission....



Northern suburbs of Perth on the western Australia coast, from NASA