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The following is a framework paper to support the process of establishing comprehensive climate change risk management measures in the Smaller Island States (SIS) of the Pacific Islands Forum.1 This paper, commissioned by SPREP with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), has been prepared by an international consortium of experts - Jacqueline Wharton, Jamie Pollard, Dave Traill, and Gabriel Manoughian - in consultation with national and regional stakeholders in the SIS and the wider Pacific region.

This design document describes the framework for Palau's activities under Output 3 "Scale up resilient development measures in specific sectors"of the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus - Scaling Up Pacific Adaptation (GCCA+SUPA) project.

The Global Climate Change Alliance Plus – Scaling Up Pacific Adaptation (GCCA+ SUPA) project is about enhancing Pacific climate change adaptation by (i) assessing the past to build sustainability into strategic planning, (ii) addressing previously-identified capacity gaps and (iii) implementing scaling up through sector focused, on-the-ground measures.

This new issue captures a series of stories of the important work that we do in climate change space. Some notable events include the Seventh Pacific Island Climate Outlook Forum (PICOF-7) which was held virtually and brought together Pacific meteorological services and stakeholder from around the Pacific region and the world to review the climate and ocean observations of the last six months, and discuss the model outlooks for the next three to six months.

Sea level in August was higher than normal for most of countries in the region with positive anomalies situated around western Palau, North western FSM and Solomon Islands. Coral bleaching is on Alert level 1 in northern PNG and parts of FSM.

An overlook to what has been happening since the last issue was sent out. With the Covid-19 pandemic happening around the world it caused us to postpone all our planned activites and now we have turn to online/virtual meetings.

Sea level in July was higher than normal fro most of countries in the region with positive anomalies situated around western Palau and Solomon Islands. Parts of PNG, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Tonga, Cook Islands and French Polynesia experienced below normal sea level.

The Tropical Pacific Ocean remains neutral with respect to the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) with negative Indian Ocean Dipole phase possible in mid-2020. International climate models forecast ENSO-neutral until July 2020.

This synthesis report provides an overview of the project and its activities, including the Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) studies, which were the foundation for the development of ecosystembased adaptation (EbA) options in the three countries. It outlines the selected EbA demonstration initiatives and highlights the successes and lessons learnt in implementing these options at provincial, island and local/village level. Synthesis reports outlining the findings of the Ecosystem and Socio-economic Resilience Analysis and Mapping (ESRAM) studies are available separately.

Assessment of vulnerability to climate change undertaken over the last two decades have identified Vanuatu as highly exposed to climate variability and change and at risks of impacts, with the country ranked 9th globally under the Climate Risk Index for 1998-2017.