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Climate change exacerbates the magnitude and impacts of climate variability and some natural hazards. The existence of some Pacific Island countries (PICs) is threatened by climate change. Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) are highly exposed to a range of natural hazards of hydro-meteorological origin (such as cyclones, droughts, landslides and floods) and geological origin (including volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis). These hazards often lead to disasters, which affect thousands of people and exacerbate existing development challenges in the region. Climate change predictions identify changes for the Pacific including an increase in extreme hot days and warm nights, extreme rainfall events, intensity of tropical cyclones in the South Pacific, sea level rise and ocean acidification. Climate change is increasing the risks from weather related disasters and posing new impacts to the region. Climate change impacts also cause progressive long-term degradation to the natural environment, to critical ecosystems (e.g. coral reefs), and to social and economic systems, resulting in loss and damage to the system upon which Pacific Island communities depend for their subsistence and livelihoods.

A monthly e-bulletin of activities and assistance from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme to its member countries.

Pacific Island countries and territories already face a range of development challenges due to their specific geographic and socio-economic characteristics, and their generally high exposure to natural hazards. The projected changes to the climate of the Pacific Island region over the coming decades present another challenging dimension that the region will need to grapple with. These changes could compromise the very ability of Pacific communities to meet their economic development needs.

This course is designed to introduce the participants on how to prepare a proposal for the Adaptation Fund (AF) through SPREP as a Regional Implementing Entity (RIE). The course assumes participants have some prior knowledge and experience of project design and project management. The course covers the requirements of the AF proposal template, and provides an overview of specific components of the proposal development process. The AF has made available through its website (www.adaptation-fund.org) a number of guidelines to support countries to prepare proposals. This course makes reference to the guidelines, but presents the information in a simplified manner to suit the timeframe of the course. A list of priority supporting reading materials available from the AF website can be found in ANNEX 1.

Climate change is often referred to as the defining challenge of our time, and it is well known that Pacific Island States are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Indeed, these adverse effects are already very tangible for most communities across the region. Coastal features are visibly changing, with rising sea-levels, higher king tides and storm surges, saltwater intrusion and changing weather patterns posing an increasing threat to the livelihoods of Pacific Island communities. The threats are amplified by extreme weather events becoming more intense and more damaging as a result of climate change, with Cyclone Pam recently causing loss of human life and catastrophic damage in Vanuatu, and to a lesser extent in the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati. 2 While communities and governments—assisted by regional, international and nongovernmental organizations—are proactively building resilience and adapting to climate change, there is a real risk of much more severe and damaging impacts materializing in the coming decades.3 The threats are so severe that most, if not all, Pacific Island States face the threat of losing some or all of their habitable territory as a result of climate change, with related risks of the loss of traditional livelihoods and large-scale involuntary displacement