Tonga's National Communication Reports in response to the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change.
Joint National Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management
Climate Change Policies of Tonga
The Kingdom of Tonga’s Third National Greenhouse Gas Inventories of Anthropogenic Emissions by Sources and Removals by Sinks of All Greenhouse Gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol Year 2006.
Tropical Cyclone Gita hit the main island of Tongatapu and the island of ‘Eua on the night of Monday, 12th February 2018 as a destructive category 4 storm, causing severe damages to these two islands which consists of about 80% of the Total population of Tonga.
This assessment uses the post-disaster data collected by the Statistical Department to describe the characteristics of the affected population, nature and spatial concentration of the damage, and the aid required and received at the time of the interview by the Tongan population.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai massive undersea volcanic eruption occurred on the 15th of January 2022 and led to an induced tsunami event. The eruption triggered a tsunami warning for several South Pacific island nations with rising water levels were reported on the coastline of Peru and the Pacific Coast in the United States and caused devastating impact across Tonga. In addition, volcanic ash residue was also visible on land surfaces including building structures and surrounding vegetation.
This dataset contains preliminary impact assessments of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcanic eruption and induced tsunami in January 2022.
The eruptions sent a plume of ash, gas and steam 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) into the air. Satellite imagery showed a massive ash cloud and shockwaves spreading from the eruption. Ash was falling from the sky in the Tonga capital, Nuku'alofa, Saturday evening and phone connections were down. The eruption was likely the biggest recorded anywhere on the planet in more than 30 years, according to experts.
As early as 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migrationwith millions of people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption.3 Since then, successive reports have argued that environmental degradation, and in particular climate change, is poised to become a major driver of population displacementa crisis in the making.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 64 p.
The main purpose of this paper is to help policy makers,
particularly those in developing countries, think about the national policy instruments needed to contribute to the
fight against climate change, how such needs can be articulated in order to seek internal and external financial resources and how these needs may be reflected in negotiations of a future climate change agreement. This paper is an input to a series of workshops which the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will organize in developing countries with the aim of improv-
Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our
planet and its people. Reducing emissions of greenhouse
gases (GHG) is called mitigation. Responding to the impacts of climate change is called adaptation. A certain amount of adaptation will be necessary, no matter what we do. But, there will come a point where it will not be possible to adapt our way out of the problem.
In 2007, the UNFCCC Secretariat prepared a report on
"Investment and Financial Flows to Address Climate
Change".11 The report covers mitigation and adaptation in
various sectors over the period to 2030. The report defines
an investment as the initial (capital) cost of a new physical
asset with a life of more than one year, such as the capital
cost of a gas-fired generating unit or a water supply
system. A financial flow is an ongoing expenditure related
to climate change mitigation or adaptation that docs not
All over the world Indigenous Peoples are affected by the impacts of climate change. They often live close to the land and depend on its physical resources and richness for their livelihoods and well-being. Their environments are increasingly threatened by, for example, desertification, sea level rise, extreme weather events, and changes in wildlife health, migration patterns and abundance. At the same time, there is evidence that some current attempts to tackle climate change may also have disastrous effects on indigenous groups and communities.
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It is now widely acknowledged within the scientific community that the global rate of sea- level rise is quickening - and is likely to continue to do so as a result of anthropogenic
climate change. It is expected, therefore, that any resulting increase in the frequency or intensity of extreme sea-level events will cause serious problems for the inhabitants of low-
lying coastal communities and islands during the 21st century.
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Call Number: [EL[
Physical Description: 16 p.
Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have committed themselves to considering the special needs and concerns of developing countries resulting from the adverse effects of climate change in the area of insurance. The needs of small island states have been are highlighted for attention, due to their unique geographic features and exposure, and thus unique vulnerability.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 49 p.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) hosts some of the world's largest and
last remaining intact forest landscapes. While these forests have always been a haven for biodiversity and provided a livelihood for the millions of people who live in them, it is only in recent years that their importance for carbon storage has come to be fully appreciated.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 32 p.
Samoa, a small islands country in the south pacific comprises of four main inhabitated islands and 6 smaller uninhabitated islands. The islands of Samoa lie between latitudes of 13° 15°S to and longitudes of 168° -173° W. The total land area is estimated to be around 2820 km2 whereby Upolu holds 1115 km2 and Savaii with 1700 km2. The capital Apia is located on the northern part of Upolu and is approximately 130 km from Pago Pago, American Samoa, 3000 km from Auckland, New Zealand, 4500 km from Sydney Australia, and 4300 km from Honolulu, Hawaii.
While acknowledging their diversity, the IPCC Third
Assessment Report (TAR) also noted that small island states
share many similarities (e.g., physical size, proneness to natural disasters and climate extremes, extreme openness of their economies, low adaptive capacity) that enhance their vulnerability and reduce their resilience to climate variability and change.
Available online|(* NB these materials are also available on the workshop CDROM deposited with the IRC NBSAP workshop Nadi, Feb 2009)
Call Number: [EL]
1. Article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity/ requires each Party to develop or adapt national strategies, plans or programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and to integrate, as far as possible and as appropriate, the conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies.
Available online
Call Number: [EL]
Physical Description: 11 Pages