Uni offering climate change studies

The National Weekender
ENVIRONMENT

By MICHAEL PHILIP
RESEARCH by Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland’s Australian Centre for Sustainable Business Development, Bob Hansen, shows that climate is changing and the world is aware of this fact.
The earth has reportedly gone through very warm periods from 22°C some 50 to 70 million years ago and very cold periods at 6°C some 600,000 years ago. Currently the average global temperature is 14°C, according to Prof Hansen.
He said in the past years, most of this variation was caused by the elliptical orbit the earth takes around the sun or by the release of carbon by extreme volcanic periods such as the uplift of the Himalayas 60 million years ago. By going through the effects of these historical events, people have a good understanding of what the impacts of rising global temperatures caused by the release of carbon may have for the future of the Earth.
A published report in 1979 predicted that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would double from its pre-industrial levels by about 2035. Today it is expected this will happen by about 2050. A doubling of the carbon dioxide would lead to an average warming of the planet of 2°C to 3°C.
The temperature at the polar regions would increase by approximately 12°C and the tropics by less than 1°C. These predictions are already coming true, with record melting of the Arctic Sea ice during summer.

Family enjoying beach time in New Ireland. -Picture supplied

The impact on PNG’s climate
The 2011 Pacific Climate Change Science Program reported that;

  • By 2030, temperatures would rise by between 0.4°C and 1.0°C.
  • Annual rainfall would increase, with more extreme rainfall events
  • Sea levels rising at 7.0 mm a year in the vicinity of PNG, double the global average of 2.8mm to 3.5mm a year.
  • The sea level is affected by the phenomena El Nino- Southern Oscilliation. This is a rise of 140mm in the last 20 years.

Implications for PNG economy
The impacts of these forecasted changes are many and significant. Some of those changes are;

  • Coffee and cocoa producing regions may expand with increased rainfall but there will also be increased disease challenges with the higher humidity in current production regions.
  • Agricultural commodityprice will rise and be more volatile, as there will be increased demand and more weather events impacting on the supply chain dynamics.
  • Rising sea level will impact coastal communities which will allow relocation to the mainland. This will create social problems for many of these communities. A good example is the Salamaua Isthmus in Morobe, which has been substantially eroded in the last 20 years.

The facts about what has happened and what is yet to happen regarding climate is frightening. International climate experts say climate change has huge potential to destroy the country’s economy if not addressed. However, for PNG nothing much has been done to address climate change. One main factor that affects the process to address climate change in PNG is the shortage of climate experts and manpower.
Relevant authorities responsible for addressing climate change impacts lack manpower in the field of climate change.
This problem has been addressed bythe Papua New Guinea University of Natural Resources and Environment (PNGUNRE) with the introduction of their new degree programme in Environment and Climate Change that was established in 2019. The pioneers of these programme will graduate at the end of this year and would be looking for opportunities to apply their skills and knowledge.
School of Environment and Climate Change (SECC) and Renewable Energy Acting Head of Department Jason Paliau tells us more.
SECC was introduced in 2019. The school currently have two departments, SECC and Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering (REEE). Last year we took our first intake under REEE and also start off with delivering the courses. We have seen that there is high number of students coming in.
SECC and REEE are not accredited as yet but an assurance was made earlier this year by the Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (DHERST) to be accredited and work is in progress. Students came in self-sponsored and hopefully by the end of this year our courses will be accredited and they should be getting scholarships. It is a very small school. We have three lectures, two tutors and technical officers plus our personal assistance so we have so far five staffs.
Climate Change is a cross-cutting issue that affects different types of sectors. We are teaching students mitigation and adaptations techniques to minimise the impacts of climate change. Under REEE, we are trying to move into clean energy, for example, the use of solar, geothermal, hydropower as well as bio-energy. We are helping our students to become environmentalist as well as having their skills approved in terms of engineering mainly on the renewable energy sources such as solar energy, bio-energy, geothermal.
One of the major challenges is the development of courses mainly on engineering due to lack of lecturers. Some of us are taking more than five courses which is a big challenge for us but we are currently slowly recruiting new lectures.
For climate change we only give out mitigation measures and adaptations.
Students have shown much interest mainly in climate change and the number of students is increasing every year.
SECC student representative Hinome Kockoja also tells us his experience studying the programme.
This school is very interesting. We are experiencing climate change every now and then. As a Pacific island nation we have become more vulnerable to climate change impacts. The prolonged drought period in ENB is an result of climate change.
As a pioneer student, more research needs to be done. We also need more climate scientists so they can come up with mitigation and adaptation strategies to address climate change. The economy will collapse because of climate change. We have to find better ways and solutions to address it.
We have to do things in a sustainable way so that we can capture the carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere and turn that into something useful and combat the impacts of climate change.
We are proud to be here taking this course and when we graduated we can go out there and do something, come up with mitigation and adaptation strategies and bring solutions to the climate crisis in our country, and create some innovative things to help governments fight against climate change.
In summary, the impacts of climate change will have significant financial implications for PNG. There will be winners and losers and they are not all apparent presently.
Additional budgetary funds and recruitment of these pioneer climate change students will be required for infrastructure upkeep and proper education awareness throughout the country addressing climate change impacts.