The Tongan Government will host the Sixth meeting of the Pacific Island Countries (PIC) Network of Ozone Officers, and a Joint Meeting of National Ozone and Training of Custom Officers, next week 10-14 March, 2014.

The meeting at the Scenic Hotel in Fua’amotuis being hosted through the Ministry of Lands, Environment, Climate Change & Natural Resources. It is organised in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Australian Government.

The meeting is part of Tonga’s obligations to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the protocol calls for the phase out of ozone depleting substances.

According to the United Nations “the objectives are to deliver to PIC-officers the needed skills and resources required to sustain national implementation of obligations under the Montreal Protocol for the phase-out of ozone depleting substances.”

The objective of the meeting is to train PIC officers in sustaining the phase-out of ozone depleting substances.

Participating countries include Niue, Samoa, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands.