acting Defense Minister Jone Usamate during the 3rd South West Pacific Heads of Maritime Forces Meeting in Suva [Source: Fijian Government]

Climate change is posing a great threat to the country’s economic stability and is now impacting the revenue in the tourism industry.

This was highlighted by the acting Defense Minister Jone Usamate during the 3rd South West Pacific Heads of Maritime Forces Meeting yesterday in Suva.

Usamate says the effects of climate change not only impact people’s daily lives but can affect the economy as well.

“Potentially, these impacts are further projected to second-order consequences such as economic loss from this frequent natural disastrous calamities, declining revenue from tourism and thirdly human security migration. Especially from atoll islands subject to inundation- the sea level rise.”

He adds his ministry is looking at ways of strengthening its infrastructure to be resilient to climate change.

“Very important for my ministry – infrastructure damage through rising sea level, flooding and storm damage and the need for resilient infrastructure. Most of our infrastructure is placed in places where it is highly likely to be impacted by climate change so there’s a great need for resilient to all the infrastructure that we have.”

He adds that major climate-related security concerns for the Pacific include access to freshwater, local food supply and infrastructure damage.

The theme for this year’s meeting is Climate Change -The Regional Maritime Security Threat.

The workshop will conclude tomorrow.