Republic of the Marshall Islands' National Adaptation Plan

The RMI NAP process commenced after the 2050 Climate Strategy for RMI was published in September 2018. The 2050 Climate Strategy dealt mainly with mitigation issues with emissions targets for the Nationally Determined Contributions but also called for the urgent development of a National Adaptation Plan to provide for a balanced dialogue on RMI priorities for mitigation activity for reducing emissions and adaptation activity for addressing the potentially critical impacts of climate change.

In February 2019 an ad hoc NAP Working Group was formed chaired by the Chief Secretary. A Technical Support Team evolved to support the Director OEPPC in servicing the ad hoc Working Group. A series of meetings led to the development of a NAP Outline for RMI and in March a workshop and meeting was held in Majuro with SPREP to initiate the development of a funding proposal to access GCF funding for the development of a NAP and NAP planning process.

In April an initial Internal Dialogue workshop was held with RMI stakeholders to introduce the NAP discussion to a wider group of stakeholders. The RMI NAP Outline became the means by which scope of needed adaptation activity was framed and referenced. It was clear the issues facing RMI were compelling and that major decisions would need to be addressed through the 2025 to 2030 time period. At the same time the unique issues for atoll countries facing sea level rise were being advocated in the global dialogue and the importance of the RMI Government driving the NAP process in order to address these unique issues was recognised. This has led to the recent appointment of a local NAP Coordinator to keep these issues focussed

The issue of balancing external support and expertise with internal determination of how to address the issues has become a major driver for the RMI NAP process. Alongside the funding issues and timeframe discussed below there have been offers of funded technical support from Melbourne University with credentials of ‘expert adaptation advice’ and experience within RMI in the social application of adaptation processes and village engagement. There are other funders recognising practical opportunities to contribute to elements of the RMI NAP Outline.

In addressing an appropriate arrangement for RMI to progress the NAP development issues of timeliness, access to funding, local determination, process and capacity development and credibility in the global climate environment all need to be balanced. These are addressed below in this developing update.

This is occuring at a time when the uniqueness of atoll nations at the cutting edge of climate change is being recognised with the on-going Atoll Dialogue initiated in Suva at the end of April with RMI, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Maldives with partner stakeholders. In addition two regional studies have been initiated to better understand the issues. These are a World Bank Atoll Resilience Study which will contribute into elements of the RMI NAP Outline and a UN Peace Building Fund study into atoll security issues initiated from the Fiji Resident Coordinator’s Office.