Potential impacts of greenhouse gas generated climatic change and projected sea-level rise on Pacific Island states of the SPREP region

Abstract

Excluding the countries of the Pacific Rim and those of the South East Asian Seas Region such as the Philippines, the Pacific Basin includes a number of independent micro-states, dependencies and territories of major powers such as the United States, France, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.Table 1 provides some basic data for these "political entities" (hereafter referred to as "countries") including land area; area of the exclusive economic zones (sea area), population size and ratios between these parameters. It can be seen that for most of the 25 "countries" the land area is insignificant in global terms (just over half a million square kilometers); 85 percent of this area is contained within the boundaries of Papua New Guinea.