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Climate change adaptation is vital for Pacific SIDS. Long-term effects, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme events such as high rainfall, droughts, tropical cyclones, and storm surges are affecting the people in this region. Coupled with non-climate drivers, such as inappropriate land use, overexploitation of resources, increasing urbanization and population increase, development in the region is increasingly undermined. For the low lying atolls, the likely economic disruption from climate change pressures could be catastrophic and potentially lead to population relocation and therefore social and cultural disruption and disproportion. Failure to reduce vulnerability may result in loss of future risk management opportunities when impacts may be greater and options fewer.

Pacific island nations have obligations for the conservation and sustainable use of critical marine habitats and species under a number of legally and non-legally binding international instruments. Foremost among these are the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Apia Conventions. These instruments emphasise the linkages between the protection of the marine environment, sustainable management of coastal and marine resources and human development. It is not possible to consider the conservation and sustainable use of critical marine habitats and species separately from wider social and economic issues