Attachments
Introduction
The Pacific region is at a crossroads. The advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals aspirations across all sectors are facing the test of international solidarity. The Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) contribute less than 0.03 per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions but are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. They are made up of a land area of only half a million square kilometres, and of low-lying atolls that do not reach more than a few meters above current sea levels.
Natural disasters and the impacts of climate change, together with vulnerabilities stemming from physical characteristics, remoteness and lack of necessary infrastructure, are having a profound impact on sustainable development across all sectors in the Pacific SIDS. For example, the percentage of the population in Fiji suffering from food insecurity increased from 4.2 per cent in December 2020 to 11.4 per cent in February 2021 due to Tropical Cyclone Ana which formed in late January 2021, while Tropical Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu caused economic loss and damage estimated at 64 per cent of GDP in 2015, demonstrating that development gains can be set back by years due to a single weather event. Unsurprisingly, countries in the Pacific have had longstanding concerns about the impacts of climate change.
In 2015, leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum published a Declaration on Climate Change Action, in which they expressed their deep concern about the growing threat posed by climate change to the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being and security of Pacific Island Countries and Territories, and their peoples. This was followed by the 2019 Kainaki II Declaration for Urgent Climate Action Now, the strongest statement the Pacific Islands Forum has ever issued collectively on climate change.
Pacific delegations have also been active in the conferences held under the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Pacific leaders led the push at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) to adopt the target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Meanwhile, the efforts and leadership of the Pacific SIDS, as well as other countries, led to the historic decision to establish a “loss and damage” fund at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022.
Historically, the PSIDS have had to overcome several unique development challenges. But the effects of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and rising fuel and food prices due to geopolitical tensions are creating some of the most adverse socio-economic impacts ever faced by the PSIDS in their history.
Against this backdrop, the Subregional Office for the Pacific of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) pulled together the latest reports and evidence on climate change in the Pacific subregion. A major theme which emerged was the need to integrate climate change considerations across the various sectors, which could foster synergies between different policy areas to achieve climate goals. Pacific Perspectives 2022: Accelerating Climate Action focuses on four thematic areas: disaster resilience; ocean and climate synergy; climate smart and digital trade; and energy transition.
Pacific Perspectives 2022: Accelerating Climate Action is structured as follows:
Chapter 1, Tackling the disaster-climate-health nexus looks at the complex relationship between natural disasters, climate change and biological hazards which affect people’s health. While the number of fatalities from natural disasters has gone down in the PSIDS, the number of people affected has risen from 1.2 million to 5.5 million in the last decade. This has been partly due to the rising frequency and growing intensity of natural hazards, with COVID-19 adding another layer of vulnerability in the last few years. The chapter highlights the climate and biological hazard risk hotspots in PSIDS according to future scenarios given by the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) and Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSP) analyses, including increasing extreme events like floods and related biological hazards. It then goes on to describe the priority adaptation strategies, such as the strengthening of early warning systems and application of frontier technologies. There are already many regional frameworks and initiatives to facilitate cooperation, some of which are working towards improving the knowledge base on disasters and climate change, and others which are establishing innovative mechanisms for financing and risk management. As building resilience to natural disasters is an over-arching goal for the Pacific region, there is still scope for strengthening cooperation in this area.
Chapter 2, Ocean and climate synergies, identifies ocean and climate synergies, consistent with the Kainaki II Declaration mentioned above which highlighted the importance of the ocean-climate nexus. There is growing evidence of how ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, ice melt, and sea level rise are having devastating impacts on the ocean in the Pacific and around the world. Rising sea levels are particularly concerning to Pacific communities, as it is estimated that around 50 per cent of the population resides within 10 km of the coastline. At the same time, there is also more and more evidence which shows that a restored and protected ocean would help mitigate the impact of storms and sea level rise, saving lives and livelihoods, and reducing economic costs of damage and recovery. In this regard, ocean-based solutions to climate change are attracting the attention of both researchers and policymakers. For example, coastal and ocean ecosystems have a large carbon sink capacity and hence play a crucial role in mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration. The chapter also describes the need to conserve and protect marine ecosystems, as they not only help with climate change mitigation and adaptation, but also provide a wide range of co-benefits. However, the growing scientific understanding of the ocean and climate nexus is yet to be reflected properly in policy and action. Many governments in the Pacific and their development partners are therefore stepping up efforts to enhance exchanges between the scientific and political communities. There is also a need to build the capacities of scientists from the region and improve the data for relevant research. Advances in science and research will also raise awareness about how the Pacific subregion can make significant contributions to climate change mitigation.
Chapter 3, Climate-smart and digital trade describes how trade policies can help countries access goods and services that can help mitigate climate change, while digitizing trade can reduce the impact that trade itself has on the environment. Some Pacific countries have already begun making their trade policy more digital and climate-smart through the removal of tariffs for environmental goods and services, but few countries have developed comprehensive national trade strategies which reflect environmental issues and climate-smart policies. From an environmental perspective, the digitalization of trade has both positive and negative repercussions. ESCAP studies have shown that the implementation of an electronic single window could lead to considerable environmental gains as it cuts down time and steps in trade processes. However, digital technologies themselves require energy and are estimated to be responsible for 4 per cent of GHG emissions. Moves towards digitalization and digital trade therefore need to balance environmental and sustainability issues. As the promotion of digital trade is conditional to having access to electricity as well as the Internet and digital services, more attention should be given to increasing the proportion of the population which has access to these basic services.
Chapter 4, Energy transition describes the context, relevance and opportunities for the energy transition in the Pacific. It outlines the Pacific context of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) and its targets, including the trade and consumption of different energy sources. At present, oil makes up about 80 per cent of the region’s total energy supply, of which 52 per cent is used for transport and 37 per cent for electricity generation, with a fuel bill of about $6 billion per year, constituting anything from 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the gross domestic product of the PSIDS. In view of the high cost of importing fuel, which has been pushed even higher by the global energy crisis, it is even more important for the Pacific countries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. In this regard, the current crisis provides a clear opportunity for the energy transition. In many cases, renewable sources can deliver clean energy at a lower cost than conventional sources, making the business case for further investments in renewable energy strong. Measures to improve the efficiency of energy can also help improve energy security. The chapter discusses recent efforts to harmonize energy strategies at the subregional level, and offers priority areas for governments to focus on in order to achieve SDG 7 and the energy-related Nationally Determined Contributions.
The Way Forward concludes with a four-point climate agenda. It describes the support that is available to policymakers through intergovernmental organizations, multilateral development banks and other frameworks, and stresses the roles which regional cooperation can play to deliver the goals described in this publication.