3 August 2024, Funafuti Tuvalu - The Government and the people of Tuvalu have embraced the opportunity to host the Fourth Clean Pacific Roundtable (4CPRT) at the Rt. Hon. Dr Sir Tomasi Puapua Convention Centre (TPCC), Funafuti, from 5 – 9 August 2024.

More than 200 delegates are descending on the atoll nation for the next five days to strengthen and advance the journey towards a Cleaner Pacific.

Facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), with Members and partners, the CPRT exists to facilitate networking and dialogue, improve donor coordination, mobilise technical and financial resources and to monitor the progress of the Cleaner Pacific 2025.

Cleaner Pacific 2025 is a comprehensive long-term strategy for integrated sustainable waste management and pollution prevention and control in the Pacific islands region until 2025. It provides a strategic management framework to address waste, chemicals and pollutants that will reduce associated threats to sustainable development of the region.

 “Tuvalu is very excited to welcome all the delegates who are here and will be arriving during the next few days for the Fourth Clean Pacific Roundtable,” said Ms Pepetua Latasi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Climate Change and Environment.

“Waste management is a major issue across all Pacific countries. The exceptional context of Tuvalu being a low lying atoll and small land area, in addition to climate change and sea level rise thus further exacerbates the challenges of effective management of waste in the country. The CPRT is an opportunity to have critical conversations with partners and potential donors on ways we can solve the problem.”

The inaugural Clean Pacific Roundtable was held in 2016. It was followed by the second Roundtable hosted at the Pacific Islands Forum in 2018 which led to the 49^th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Communique reaffirming the Leaders’ commitment to eliminate marine litter, recognising the urgency of implementing the Pacific Marine Litter Action Plan and emphasised that waste is a critical issue for the Blue Pacific. 

The 3^rd Clean Pacific Roundtable in 2021 was held virtually due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, it was decided that the 4CPRT would be hosted by Papua New Guinea.

Since then, the role of the Clean Pacific Roundtable has grown in recognition of the complex challenges of the waste sector in the Pacific, and urgency surrounding meeting these challenges for effective planning, coordination and financing for a Clean Environment, Resilient Ocean, and enabling Healthy Communities. 

SPREP’s Director of Waste Management and Pollution Control (WMPC), Mr Anthony Talouli, said the CPRT has come a long way in the effort to encourage conversations between SPREP, Pacific Governments, partners and donors about waste management.

“For this roundtable, noting the end of 2025 Cleaner Pacific Strategy, we are here to look back and reflect and then look forward,” he said. “We want to continue the conversations, what do we envision for the future. For the first CPRT, our aspiration was for a Cleaner Pacific. Here in Tuvalu, we want to know where we are at, and whether we want to continue with that same aspiration. From here we want to know what are our priorities and how do we take those forward.”

Mr Talouli expressed appreciation to the Government and the people of Tuvalu for hosting this year’s Roundtable.

“Tuvalu is a small country but they definitely pull their weight globally so we are very pleased to be here,” he said. “There is a slogan in the environment space that if you save Tuvalu, you save the world. Our message by being here in Tuvalu is the same, addressing the impacts of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.”

ABOUT THE 4CPRT

The Fourth Clean Pacific Roundtable (CPRT) facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and is hosted by Tuvalu from 5 – 9 August 2024.

The Roundtable is intended to provide a vehicle to disseminate outcomes, promote regional collaboration and resource complementarity, and expand networking opportunities to assist Pacific Island countries and territories in the delivery of safe and sustainable waste management practices.  It will also prevent pollution-related issues that impact the health of the ocean and communities within the region.

It is attended by the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

For more details and the programme, click: https://www.sprep.org/4th-clean-pacific-roundtable 

For further information contact Ms. Susana Telakau at [email protected] and Ms. Davina Tiitii at [email protected].