James Lewis, Director of Intercoastal Consulting, is a certified practicing civil engineer with over 15 years of experience specialising in coastal engineering throughout Australasia and across the Pacific. He has a broad knowledge of coastal protection design, integrated coastal management and surf amenity. James’s skills extend outside the office where he has led large-scale metocean deployments, analysing the data captured in the field to calibrate numerical models used to inform coastal design.
He has focussed the last 10 years of his career on working in Small Island Developing States (SIDs) in climate change adaptation, concerned primarily with developing climate-resilient coastal protection. James aspires to see the design phase through to implementation; having supported procurement, and contracting and undertaken construction supervision on large projects in remote locations. He aims to provide value and support through the complete project lifecycle including the social, financial and institutional aspects of these projects, endeavoring to understand the administrative, governmental and funding mechanisms specific to each country and community and their relation to the delivery of a successful project.
Using his knowledge of coastal engineering, the ocean and the environment, James’ primary endeavor is to assist coastal communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Over twenty two years international experience in Europe, Caribbean, South America and Pacific of coastal engineering, shoreline strategy management planning, assessing natural coastal processes and the impacts of human activities on the coastal zone. Expertise covers a broad range of technical disciplines with particular skills in the areas of hazard and climate risk assessment, coastal processes, coastal engineering and shoreline management, disaster risk reduction, climate change and adaptation, environmental assessment, and community participation. Over fifteen years’ experience in the Pacific region, having worked initially for the Government of Kosrae, in the Federated States of Micronesia, as Coastal Management Adviser. Since 2003 has led or been involved in a wide range of projects in American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Dynamic and dedicated professional with strong technical and policy background. Advanced qualifications (PhD) in environmental sciences, climate change & energy. Distinguished record in academia as a teacher, researcher and administrator. Extensive inter-governmental experience at international levels, in climate change. Over 20 years experience in climate change and related issues, mainly in Pacific but also worked in Africa and Asia. Public service experience, having worked for Governments of Australia, Fiji and Marshall Islands and international NGOs such as Independent Diplomat (ID). Considerable experience working for international organisations such as UNEP, ADB, regional organsations such as SPREP as climate change technical expert, and USP. Serves on the UNFCCC Roster of Experts. Extremely familiar with all issues in the UNFCCC climate negotiations. Extensive record of developing, managing, implementing and monitoring projects at national and global levels. Excels at working in a fast paced, multi-cultural environment and has excellent communication skills.