Pacific Climate Security Risk Assessment and Three Atoll Nations Risk Profiles

A range of critical climate fragility risks are emerging in the Pacific including displacement and forced migration, resource tensions, loss of government revenue and threats to food and livelihood security. Taking appropriate measures is necessary to prevent potentially irreversible economic, social, cultural and environmental damages in Pacific Island Countries In low lying atoll nations, like Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the threat is existential; rising sea levels threaten total inundation. To tackle these challenges, spearhead knowledge gathering and dissemination to help guide regional policy and decision makers, and coordinate regional and international responses, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Office in Fiji  embarked on a UN Peace Building Fund Climate Security in the Pacific project.

An integral output of this project was to conduct a Pacific Climate Security Risk Assessment and develop Three Atoll Nations Risk Profiles, the aim of which was to help development partners and governments deliver tailored and adequate response and risk management strategies to climate fragility risks in the Pacific and bolster the implementation of the Pacific Islands Forum’s Boe Declaration. adelphi, in close collaboration with the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji and regional partners, led on this work based on the Weathering Risk methodology developed by adelphi. In addition, adelphi supported capacity building and training efforts to ensure that the methodology and assessments are regionally institutionalized and inform regional approaches to climate security action plans. Additionally, through conducting the assessments, adelphi provided UNDP and its Pacific Office with a better understanding of how climate risks play out in various national island contexts and identify what relevant regional and international actors can do to respond to the existential treat of climate change in the region.