This chapter discusses advances in climate change impact, adaptation, and vulnerability assessment methods, emphasizing the growing use of risk management frameworks, stakeholder involvement, and diverse scenario approaches. These developments aim to provide policy-relevant information for effective decision-making in the face of climate change, recognizing the importance of considering non-climate factors and regional-scale scenarios.
The foregoing quotations, those presented to or sanctioned by governments and inter- governmental agencies on the one hand, and those contained in magazines and newspapers (as well as in the local press and on radio) on the other hand, provide one of the contexts for the present study. The effects of such reports on island governments, officials, elders and not the least island residents themselves was, as several Tokelauans told us, one of uncertainty, bewilderment and genuine fear about the future for their families, lands and livelihood. This
The ten countries participating in the Pacific Islands
Climate Change Assistance Programme (PICCAP)
Cook Islands. Federated States of Micronesia. Fiji.
Kiribati. Marshall Islands. Nauru. Samoa. Solomon
Islands. Tuvalu. Vanuatu recognise the importance of
greenhouse gas mitigation and are committed to meeting
their obligations under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
3 copies|Also online
Call Number: 551.523 ELL (EL),CLI,363.738 7 GRE,PAC 551.523 ELL
World Bank Country Study Reports are among the many reports originally prepared for internal use
as part of the continuing analysis by the Bank of the economic and related conditions of its
developing member countries and of its dialogues with the governments. Some of the reports are
published in this series with the least possible delay of the use of the governments and the academic,
business and financial, and development communities. The typescript of this paper therefore has
Irrespective of which part of the world one lives in, the environment now figures highly on most national agendas, be they economic, political or social, and among the many environmental
issues, one dominates. Global climate change hangs over all of us like the sword of Damocles, alarming because of the enormous scale of the phenomenon, our inability to delineate its exact
configuration, and our apparent incapacity to check its course.
Cook Islands holds 551.6
Call Number: 551.699612 NUN [EL],551.6
ISBN/ISSN: 9820400295
The freshwater resources of small island states can be classified as either "conventional" or "nonconventional." Conventional resources include rainwater collected from artificial or natural surfaces, groundwater, and surface water. Nonconventional resources include seawater or brackish groundwater desalination, water importation by barge or submarine pipeline, treated wastewater, and substitution (such as the use of coconuts during droughts) (Falkland 1999a).
Kept in vertical file collection|Source: The World's Water 2002-2003. Chapter 5: 113-131
The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are currently heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Renewable energy (RE),
mostly hydro, is estimated to contribute less than 10 percent of each PICs commercial energy use and the
region is characterized by scattered and fragmented efforts to promote RE technologies that are based on
unreliable and unsubstantiated data on RE resource potentials. The Pacific Islands Renewable Energy Project
(PIREP) will facilitate the promotion within the PICs of the widespread implementation and ultimately,
With financial assistance from the Government of Denmark, the South Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP) convened this meeting in order to provide a forum where government officials, scientists and other technical experts from the region could interact with individuals working at the international level in climate change research, assessments, negotiations and institutional and financial support.
Kept in vertical file collection|E-copy of full text is available in "FL" field
Call Number: 551.699
The Republic of the Marshall Islands consists of two groups of atolls and islands: Ralik in the west and Ratak to the east, within a rectangle extending 1150 km north-south and 1300 km east- west. about 3200 kilometers from Honolulu and Tokyo. Twenty-two of 29 atolls, and four of the five small raised coral islands are inhabited. The islands are typically several km long and rarely over 200 meters in width.
Mangrove systems occur extensively on low gradient tropical shorelines, where sedimentation enables resilience during sea-level rise (SLR). Within mangroves, inundation frequencies across the intertidal slope cause zonation of different species with elevation. This tight sea-level control of the seaward margin and zones within mangroves has been demonstrated by precise EDM survey. Hence species zones in mangroves are definitive indicators of sea-level position, and pollen
Climate change2 is one of the most pressing issues for the Pacific Island countries (PICs). The impacts of climate variability and extreme events (cyclones, floods, droughts, sea
Niue consists of a single uplifted coral atoll with a unique rugged coastline. It is situated in the Southwest Pacific Ocean within the Polynesian cultural zone. The population of Niue was 2.088 at the 1977 population census, and is a declining population due to outward migration. Niue lies on the edge of the southern tropical cyclone belt, and has two distinct seasons, a hot wet season from November to March and a cool dry season from April to November. The economy is largely dependent on overseas aid. with no realistic prospect of economic self-reliance.
Global change poses enormous challenges to those responsible for managing the world's forests. There is perhaps no other ecosystem that is so closely linked to, and affected by, human induced changes to climate - being regarded simultaneously as a victim, a villain and a potential saviour. Concentrations of carbon dioxide methane and other greenhouse gases are rising at an accelerating rate in the atmosphere, largely as a result of emissions from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
This report presents the integrated case study for Fiji carried out under an OECD project on Development and Climate Change. The report is structured around a three-tier framework. First, recent climate trends and climate change scenarios for Fiji are assessed, and key sectoral impacts are identified and ranked along multiple indicators to establish priorities for adaptation. Second, donor portfolios are analyzed to examine the proportion of donor activities affected by climate risks.
Specifically the Community Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment was conducted to make it possible for the people of Aitutaki to tell the CBDAMPIC project team what climate related
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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Physical Description: 16 p.
There is now a consensus that there is a discernible human influence on global climate. The form these global changes will take in the Pacific is far less certain, but the most significant and more immediate consequences are likely to be related to changes in rainfall regimes and soil moisture budgets, prevailing winds (both speed and direction) and in regional and local sea levels and patterns of wave action.
Available online
Call Number: 341.7623[EL]
ISBN/ISSN: 982-04-0194-1
Physical Description: 84 p.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC (IPCC AR4) Working Group II (2007) identifies small island states as being among the most vulnerable countries of the world to the adverse impacts of climate change. Hay, el al.y (2003) in discussing the Pacific's observed climate noted that compared to earlier historical records during the twentieth century, the southern Pacific had experienced a significantly drier and warmer climate (by 15 percent and 0.8°C, respectively).
As noted in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, climate change is one of the most important drivers of biodiversity loss" and is projected to further adversely affect the role of
biodiversity as a source of goods and services. The impacts of climate change on biodiversity have been of major concern to the Convention on Biological Diversity since 2002 when, following a request from the Conference of the Parties and the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group was established to carry
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)
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