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  • Author Asian Development Bank
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A region at risk - The human dimensions of climate change in Asia and the Pacific
Climate Change Resilience, Biodiversity Conservation
Available Online

Asian Development Bank

2017
The Asia and Pacific region is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Unabated warming could significantly undo previous achievements of economic development and improvements of living standards. At the same time, the region has both the economic capacity and weight of influence to change the present fossil-fuel based development pathway and curb global emissions. This report sheds light on the regional implications of the latest projections of changes in climate conditions over Asia and the Pacific. The assessment concludes that, even under the Paris consensus scenario in which global warming is limited to 1.5°C to 2°C above preindustrial levels, some of the land area, ecosystems, and socioeconomic sectors will be significantly affected by climate change impacts, to which policy makers and the investment community need to adapt to. However, under a Business-As-Usual (BAU) scenario, which will cause a global mean temperature rise of over 4°C by the end of this century, the possibilities for adaptation are drastically reduced. Among others, climate change impacts such as the deterioration of the Asian “water towers”, prolonged heat waves, coastal sea-level rise and changes in rainfall patterns could disrupt ecosystem services and lead to severe effects on livelihoods which in turn would affect human health, migration dynamics and the potential for conflicts. This assessment also underlines that, for many areas vital to the region’s economy, research on the effects of climate change is still lacking.
Combating Climate Change in the Pacific: Regional Governance, agency and dependency

McDuie-Ra, Duncan

,

Williams, Marc

2016
From the perspective of Pacific island states and territories (PICTs) much of the intense speculation and debate over climate policy seems irrelevant and immature given the oft-repeated warnings of the severe consequences for low-lying islands and atoll countries of climate change. The Pacific is not just ‘any region’ when it comes to climate change but rather, as Farbotko (2010) argues, is an ‘experimental space’ of climate change ‘canaries’. The position of the Pacific at the frontline of climate change has spurred voluminous research, however studies of the politics of climate change within the region is limited, particularly with regard to and regional processes. This paper explores the regional politics of climate change in the Pacific. Within the grand architecture of global climate governance, the region provides compelling new insights into the ways climate change is constructed, governed, and shaped by—and in turn shapes—regional and global climate politics. Through an exploration of regional governance as a strategy by which small vulnerable states respond to urgent crises, the paper explores both the potential and the limitations of collective action on environmental issues following the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris 2015. We argue that evolving regional governance on climate change is mobilizing resources and finance to combat climate change. On the surface it appears to be a successful manifestation of solidarity among states and territories facing a shared fate. This solidarity has been institutionalized in three key regional organizations that mobilize resources climate change action through distinct policy narratives about the place of the Pacific in global climate crisis. These organizations also distribute these resources to members. As a result climate finance in the Pacific is mostly generated by multilateral rather than bilateral donors. However, despite this apparent demonstration of regional agency, beneath the surface regional climate governance is heavily dependent on donors for finance and expertise. This exposes a dual vulnerability of PICTs. They are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change while also being extremely vulnerable to growing dependencies on donors to address these impacts.