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Economic Impacts and Implications of Climate Change in the Pacific

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Climate Change and Impacts in the Pacific

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Abstract

This chapter provides an assessment of the impact of climate change and its implications for the people of 23 Pacific Island Countries and Territories. Two of these islands (Tuvalu and Tokelau) have maximum elevation of just 5 m above sea level; most of the population in the islands live on or close to the coast, and the bulk of economic activity including built infrastructure is concentrated around the shoreline. Consequently, a rise in sea level and an increase in storm surges will cause considerable economic harm to and displacement of the population. To the extent that climate change is the result of human activity, Pacific Islanders have contributed negligibly to greenhouse gas emissions but face the brunt of Anthropocene. While the islanders are coping as best as possible with severe climate events, they may be the canary in the coal mine with regard to the impact of climate change on humanity. Thus, there is a strong case for concerted global effort in assisting the islanders cope with climate change and at reducing the levels of greenhouse gas emissions for the benefit of humanity at large.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Tropical cyclones are categorised by wind speeds; category 1 has wind gusts of up to 125 km/h while category 5 has wind gusts exceeding 280 km/h.

  2. 2.

    Damage assessment from the Asian Development Bank.

    Cyclone Gita Recovery Project (RRP TON 52129) report, accessed online on 2 June 2019 at https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/linked-documents/52129-001-ssa.pdf.

  3. 3.

    The Economist, 2018 “Why climate migrants do not have refugee status”; accessed online at https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2018/03/economist-explains-3?cid1=cust/ddnew/email/n/n/2018036n/owned/n/n/ddnew/n/n/n/nAP/Daily_Dispatch/email&etear=dailydispatch on 7 March 2018.

  4. 4.

    This data is from the World Development Indicators (online) database, accessed on 1 February 2018.

  5. 5.

    Data for several indicators for the PICTs are either unavailable or of poor quality. Data from the one consistent source, namely, the World Development Indicators database (WDI) has been used wherever possible. The World Fact Book has been used to fill data gaps left by the WDI.

  6. 6.

    One Kina was worth US$0.31 on 18 February 2018.

  7. 7.

    Radioactive waste left after nuclear testing in the Northern Pacific is an exception, however.

  8. 8.

    The data is from Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics (http://www.statsfiji.gov.fj/statistics), accessed online on 13 February 2018.

  9. 9.

    These are the only PICTs listed on the database and the data is for the most recent year available.

  10. 10.

    The PICTs as a group receive high levels of aid on a per capita basis (see data in Table 13.1).

  11. 11.

    The experience of Botswana where some 40% of the population has been infected with HIV would be the worst nightmare for PNG. Interestingly, PNG had the first case of HIV about the same time as Botswana but did not experience a similar increase over time.

  12. 12.

    The figures reported are drawn from the Pacific Regional Information System of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, accessed online on 24 August 2015.

  13. 13.

    See http://www.wri.org/our-work/topics/climate; accessed on 1 February 2018.

  14. 14.

    Data on remittances is for 2005, the most recent available, from Browne and Mineshima (2007); Table 13.1.

  15. 15.

    See http://www.cgdev.org/content/article/detail/1426491/?utm_&&&.

  16. 16.

    On the Caribbean Planning for Adaptation to Global Climate Change project, see http://www.cpacc.org/index.htm, and see http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/disaster-risk-financing-and-insurance-program on the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program.

  17. 17.

    Data extracted from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/aid-fact-sheet-papua-new-guinea.pdf, accessed online on 14 February 2018.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Australian Defence Force Academy, UNSW Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Satish Chand

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Correspondence to Satish Chand .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

    Lalit Kumar

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Chand, S. (2020). Economic Impacts and Implications of Climate Change in the Pacific. In: Kumar, L. (eds) Climate Change and Impacts in the Pacific. Springer Climate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32878-8_13

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