Page - 365 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

Chapter15 UnderstandingLossandDamage inPacificSmall IslandDevelopingStates JohnHandmerandJohannaNalau Abstract Pacific Island states occupy the top categories in theWorldRisk Index for natural hazards, withVanuatu consistently at theNumberOne spot. For some low-lying island states climate changeposes an existential threat, and the region is increasingly recognized as themost immediately vulnerable area to potentialmass migration and relocation due to climate change. This chapter aims to localise the global debateby focusingon the issueofLoss andDamage inPacificSIDS. It also provides a commentary regarding the risk and options space in the Pacific SIDS contextwheremanyof the livelihoodactivitiesare subsistence-based, relianton the currentclimateanditsvariability,andalreadyseriouslydisruptedbyextremeweather events. Keywords LossandDamage ·Pacific ·Adaptation ·Disaster risk reduction Relocation ·SIDS 15.1 Introduction:LocalisingGlobalLossandDamage Frameworks Pacific Island states occupy the top categories in theWorldRisk Index for natural hazards,withVanuatuconsistentlyat theNumberOnespot (Birkmannet al. 2011). For some low-lying island states climate change poses an existential threat, and the region is increasingly recognised as themost immediately vulnerable region to potentialmassmigration and relocation due to climate change (Nurse et al. 2014). This chapter aims to localise the global debate by focusing on the issue of Loss J.Handmer (B) SchoolofScience,RMITUniversity,Melbourne,Australia e-mail: j.w.handmer@gmail.com J.Nalau Griffith Institute forTourism(GIFT)andGriffithClimateChangeResponseProgram(GCCRP), GriffithUniversity,Nathan,Australia e-mail: j.nalau@griffith.edu.au ©TheAuthor(s)2019 R.Mechler et al. (eds.),LossandDamage fromClimateChange,ClimateRisk Management,PolicyandGovernance,https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72026-5_15 365