Climate Change in the Pacific Region: Challenges and Solutions

1
Climate Change in the Pacific Region Challenges
and Solutions
2
Overview of Presentation

• Impacts of climate change in the Pacific
• Case Studies
• The Way Forward solutions and options for PICs

3
Impacts of Climate Change Global Evidence

• According to the latest report from the respected
  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is
  "unequivocal" that Earth's climate is warming "as
  is now evident from observations of increases in
  global average air and ocean temperatures,
  widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising
  global mean sea level."

4
Impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific

• Deterioration in coastal conditions, for example
  through erosion of beaches and coral bleaching,
  which is expected to affect local resources,
  e.g., fisheries, and reduce the value of these
  destinations for tourism.
• Sea-level rise is expected to exacerbate
  inundation, storm surge, erosion and other
  coastal hazards, thus threatening vital
  infrastructure, settlements and facilities that
  support the livelihood of island communities.

5
Impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific

• Climate change is projected by the mid-century to
  reduce water resources in many small islands in
  the Pacific, to the point where they become
  insufficient to meet demand during low rainfall
  periods.
• Contamination of fresh water with
  salt water

6
Impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific

• Coral bleaching - corals reefs, important for
  local fish stocks will suffer increasingly from
  bleaching
• Mangrove forests under threat
• According to a 2006 UNEP report some of the
  regions islands could lose half of their
  mangroves by 2100 with climate being one of the
  factors.

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Impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific

• Health risks - such as an increase in vector and
  water borne diseases caused by warmer
  temperatures.
• changing food systems and living conditions
• tuna - the principal economic resource of the
  Pacific

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Impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific

• Shifting rainfall patterns causing prolonged
  droughts in some areas and excessive rainfall in
  others, including increase in frequency and
  intensity of cyclones.
• A recent World Bank report states that Kiribati
  could experience flooding by rising sea waters of
  up to 80 per cent of the land mass in some areas.
  
• A World Bank-funded 2000 study found that in the
  absence of adaptation, up to 55-80 of land
  areas in North Tarawa, and 25-54 of areas in
  South Tarawa could be inundated by 2050 due to
  sea level rise and storm surge

9
Impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific

• According to a recent report by the Australian
  Labor Party, Our Drowning Neighbours, deaths from
  weather related disasters have already increased
  in the region by 21 since the mid 1970s.
• Cyclone wind speeds are also predicted to
  increase by 10-20 over the next few years.
• And the projected increase in the power of
  tropical storms is compounded by the increased
  number of tropical storms that has occurred over
  the last 30 years.

10
King Tides Lash Kiribati

• A family climbs to safety when their house is hit
  by a king tide in Betio, on the South Pacific
  island of Kiribati, in February, 2005. Waves
  peaked at 2.87 metres.

11
Resettlement the beginning of climate refugees
in the Pacific

• The Carteret Islands (Papua New Guinea) and
  Tuvalu are likely to be the first nations to be
  evacuated due to climate change, but Kiribati,
  the Marshall Islands and many other parts of the
  Pacific may also have to face this catastrophe.
• Final analysis - a number of PICs will have to
  be resettled because of flooding or areas being
  made uninhabitable because of their salt
  contamination

12
Case Study Tuvalu

• The threat of sea level rise may bring complete
  disaster to the 11,000 Tuvaluans currently
  residing on nine extremely low-lying coral atolls
  with its entire population having to relocate to
  other countries over the next few decades.
• Assistant Secretary for Foreign Affairs in
  Tuvalu, Paani Laupepa made it clear that we feel
  threatened, our whole culture would have to be
  transplanted

13
The Case of Tegua, Vanuatu

• A small community living in the Pacific island
  chain of Vanuatu has become one of first to be
  formally moved as a result of climate change.
• The community has been relocated higher into the
  interior of Tegua Island after their coastal
  homes were repeatedly swamped by storm surges and
  waves.

14
The Carterets

• The Carterets are six small islands that surround
  an atoll about 25 kilometres wide.
• The islands are approximately one metre above
  high tide and made of sand.
• Citizens on the Carteret Islands in Papua New
  Guinea are also currently being moved because of
  concerns for sea-level rise.
• The communitys health has been affected as they
  lose access to fresh water, and advancing
  salt-water is destroying gardens.

15
The Way Forward

• There is a responsibility for churches in
  industrialised nations to take the first steps to
  move the world away from climate change but to
  also assist church communities in vulnerable
  island countries and nations in dealing with the
  current and expected impacts.

16
UNFCCC Obligations

• Australia and New Zealand, as wealthy
  industrialised nations in the Pacific, have a
  moral and ethical obligation to assist their
  Pacific neighbours.
• Industrialised Nations, in particular Australia
  and New Zealand also have international
  obligations under the UN Framework Convention on
  Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist Pacific island
  countries and other developing nations that are
  particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of
  climate change in meeting the costs of adaptation
  to those adverse effects and to formulate and
  implement national and, where appropriate,
  regional mitigation and adaptation programs.

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Proposed Actions for Pacific Churches

• Continue to lobby the industrial nations on
  their lack of concerted action and pressure them
  to reduce greenhouse emissions
• migration
• foreshore stabilisation, resettlement and
  decentralisation to adapt to the impacts of
  climate and sea-level changes.
• protecting fresh water sources from salt-water
  contamination
• adapting to land losses and dealing with coastal
  infrastructure impacted by erosion.

18
Options for the PICs

• the most important thing to do is to
  reduce greenhouse emissions
• assistance in developing and moving to renewable
  energy
• renewable energy could play a significant role in
  addressing mitigation but also many of the other
  issues related to energy use and demand in the
  Pacific.
• Pacific nations will need assistance to undertake
  and deliver many of these options in terms of
  planning and the associated policy implications.

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Conclusion

• NO THEORETICAL DISCUSSIONS
• QUESTION OF LIFE AND DEATH
• HOW FAR CAN WE ADAPT TO NEW WEATHER CONDITIONS?
• DO WE STILL HAVE A CHOICE WHERE TO LIVE?
• SLOW EVACUATION PROCESS FOR TUVALU.

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OUR PACIFIC CALL TO THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

• Let us embrace our
• Mutual Vulnerability
• Let us embrace our
• Accountability to Each Other
• Make real our commitment to
• Ecumenical solidarity

21
Individually we are a drop, together we are an
ocean" Ryunosuke Satoro