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17.3.4. Adaptation and Adaptive Capacity
As Campbell (1996) notes, a key misconception is that adaptation is a task
carried out by governments. Insofar as governments have property and are responsible
for carrying out a variety of activities, they will be required to take adaptive
action. Most adaptation, however, will be carried out by individual stakeholders
and communities, urban or rural, that inhabit island countries. Therefore, the
government's primary role is to facilitate and steer this process—ideally
in a manner that benefits the wider community.
Small island states often are susceptible to the impacts of a wide range of
natural hazards, including climatic extremes. In the south Pacific region alone,
island states suffered a total of 79 tropical cyclones, 95 storm surges, 12
floods, 31 droughts, four earthquakes, five landslides, two tsunamis, and four
volcanic eruptions during the 1990s (Burns, 2000; Gillespie and Burns, 2000;
Hay, 2000). The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction and the Global
Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island States noted several issues
that influence adaptation to such impacts. These issues include the limited
capacity of developing small island states to respond to and recover from natural
and environmental disasters, owing to their narrow resource base and small size.
Another issue is the decline in traditional coping mechanisms employed by island
states, such as food preservation and storage techniques and disaster-resistant
housing designs.
Given their high vulnerability, it is generally accepted that a proactive approach
to adaptation planning would be especially beneficial to small islands, to minimize
the adverse effects of climate change and sea-level rise (Campbell and de Wet,
2000). One essential prerequisite for implementing adaptive measures is support
from policymakers and the general public. Thus, raising public awareness and
understanding about the threats of climate change and sea-level rise and the
need for appropriate adaptation require urgent and consistent attention. Because
strong social and kinship ties exist in many small island states—for example,
in the Pacific—a community-based approach to adaptation could be vital
if adaptation policies and options are to be successfully pursued.
It also should be noted that small island states have faced many hazards in
the past; as a consequence, their inhabitants have developed some capacity to
cope by resorting to a combination of strategies, including application of traditional
knowledge, locally appropriate technology (e.g., construction on stilts in flood-prone
areas), use of indigenous materials, and other customary practices. Thus, for
these states, it would be mandatory for any climate change adaptation policy
and implementation plan to incorporate these traditional coping skills.
One of the obstacles to implementation of adaptation strategies stems from the
uncertainties associated with the projection of future climate change and its
impacts, at scales appropriate to small islands. Therefore, better guidance
is needed for policy development in the face of uncertainties, together with
more reliable climate projections at a scale that is relevant to the small island
states (Edwards, 2000).
Many island states confront a range of pressing socioeconomic concerns (e.g.,
poverty alleviation, unemployment, health, and education), and climate change
tends to be assigned a low priority on most national agendas. Thus, given the
long lead time for implementing and assesing adaptation (as much as 50-100
years), progress in realizing its goals almost certainly will require integration
of adaptation strategies with other sectoral and national policies, such as
economic development, disaster prevention and management, integrated coastal
management, and sustainable development frameworks.
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Box 17-3. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Small
Island States in the Pacific
Based on application of the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse
Gas Inventories, Pacific island countries are responsible for
a per capita equivalent emission of approximately 0.96 t of CO2
yr-1. Hence, the total Pacific island population of 7.1
million in 22 countries produces 6.816 Mt of CO2 yr-1.
In contrast, based on International Energy Agency data for 1996,
global CO2 emissions arising from fossil fuel combustion
alone are 22,620.46 Mt of CO2 yr-1, or 4.02
t of CO2 yr-1 per capita. Thus, on average,
Pacific islanders produce approximately one-quarter of the CO2
emissions attributable to the average person worldwide. Expressed
another way, the Pacific islands region as a whole accounts for
0.03% of the global emissions of CO2 from fuel combustion
despite having approximately 0.12% of the world's population.
Source: Hay and Sem, 1999.
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Box 17-4. Renewable Energy Use in Small Island
States: A "Win-Win" Strategy
Most small islands are heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels
for the majority of their energy requirements, particularly transport
and electricity production. This is clearly demonstrated in the
case of the Caribbean and Pacific islands, where petroleum imports
are responsible for more than 75 and 88%, respectively, of primary
energy demand. The cost of fossil fuel imports also places a considerable
economic burden on small island states, accounting on average for
almost 15% of all imports in these countries. In addition, the cost
of electricity production (US$0.10-0.15 and 0.20 kWh-1
for the Caribbean and the Pacific, respectively) can be as much
as three to four times higher than in developed countries.
In many islands, the high unit cost of conventional power production
versus the increasingly competitive cost of renewable energy technologies
(especially solar and wind), make the latter economically viable
and environmentally friendly options. For these reasons, several
small island states are making a significant contribution to global
utilization of renewable energy resources. These include, inter
alia, the following countries:
- Barbados, where approximately 33% of all households use solar
water heaters
- La Desirade, Guadeloupe, where more than 75% of all electricity
is generated from wind power
- Fiji and Dominica, where hydropower accounts for more than 30%
of electricity production
- Tuvalu, where photovoltaics supply 45% of the electricity
- Reunion, where almost 20% of the electricity is biomass-generated
(from bagasse, a by-product of sugarcane); bagasse also is becoming
increasingly important as an energy source in Jamaica and Fiji.
Sources: Jensen, 1999; Ellis and Fifita, 1999.
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17.3.5. Regional and External Factors
Small island states account for a small percentage of world energy consumption
and extremely low levels of global HG emissions and on balance are likely to
be severely impacted by the effects of climate change (Yu et al., 1997;
see Box 17-3). In most states, the bulk of the energy
requirements are met from imported fossil fuels, which places a heavy burden
on island economies (Yu et al., 1997). Adaptation and mitigation strategies
in these countries, as elsewhere, will necessitate more economic and efficient
energy use and greater emphasis on development of renewable energy sources (see
Box 17-4).
To implement these strategies, many small islands, will require external technical,
financial, and other assistance (Rijsberman, 1996). Given these states'
size and limited individual capacities, pooling of resources through regional
cooperation has been proposed as an effective means of designing and implementing
some adaptation measures (Nicholls and Mimura, 1998). Some island groupings
already have begun to implement regional projects aimed at building capacity
to respond to climate change. Two projects—Caribbean Planning for Adaptation
to Climate Change (CPACC), which is being implemented by 12 Caribbean states,
and Pacific Islands Climate Change Assistance Program (PICCAP), which is being
executed by SPREP for 10 Pacific island countries—are outstanding models
of regional cooperation.
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