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Culture is a key areas for SPC, and the Social Development Programme (SDP) has lead responsibility for the portfolio. Part of this work is to develop organisational capabilities that include knowledge of Pacific cultures and their critical relevance to our work with our members. This guide is not all encompmassing but rather aims to equip us with some basic cultural knowledge of the Pacific countries and communities we serve.

Seagrasses are an important of many coastal ecosystems worldwide. They are flowering plants, or angiosperms and grow as meadows in subtidal and intertidal zone in tropical, subtropical and temperate seas.

The sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) assesses the state of the environment, the effectiveness of policy and other responses in addressing environmental challenges, and the possible pathways for achieving carious internationally agreed environmental goals.

Contamination of the environment by pollutants like heavy metals is a growing phenomenon mainly driven by anthropogenic activities.

Anthropogenic activities continue to be a major source of recalcitrant toxicants such as heavy metals (HMs) in the environment.

As this report is published, the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before, it hit, the Asia-Pacific region was progressing too slowly on delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Transformation approaches will be needed for progress, especially on goals facing the most persistent shortcomings. This report shows that some countries have been able to move faster than others and make progress on various aspects of the 2030 Agenda. If focuses on six interlinked transformative entry points that are key to the Global Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs by 2030.

Currently, reduction of environmental e ects of the cement industry is an issue of global interest and one of the alternatives is to replace clinker with additions such as volcanic powder. The purpose of this work is to study the influence of up to 400 hardening days of volcanic powder, obtained from the last eruption of the Calbuco volcano (Chile), on the pore structure, mechanical performance, and durability-related properties of mortars which incorporate up to 20% volcanic powder as a substitution for clinker. In addition, an evaluation of greenhouse gases emissions was performed in order to quantify the possible environmental benefits of incorporating the volcanic powder in the mortars. The results obtained indicated that mortars with contents of 10% and 20% of volcanic powder had adequate service properties and improved all durability-related properties overall as compared with those noted for ordinary Portland cement. Additionally, the use of up to 20% volcanic powder makes it possible to reduce the CO2 emissions of mortars by almost 20%, demonstrating the advantages of incorporating this addition in mortars.

Like so many communities and territories, even the planet itself, placed in peril by today's global climate emergency, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) future relies on the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. The Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Agreement, spelling out how each nation contributes to it, have thereby become the most important public documents for the future of the world and the survival of our human civilization as we know it.

This September edition of our newsletter comes to you from the lovely island of Mangaia, where we have been this past week, participating in the southern Marumaru Atua vaka voyage and school presentations, as well as working on a community waste management project.

This book provides a unique perspective on the multidimensional aspects of the health impacts of climate change and air pollution, which include the science, impacts, solution and advocacy of the solutions. The book is intended to add a new approach to climate change by focusing on its health impacts from a multidisciplinary understanding that can be used for academic, political, faith, community and activism purposes.