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Human rights and climate change: background paper

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

Climate change will have significant impacts in both Australia and across the globe. Australia is one of the most arid continents in the world. It is vulnerable to risks such as disruptions to water supply; increases in the severity of storms, floods and droughts, coastal erosion due to sea level rise; and to negative human health impacts, for example through an increase in the range and spread of disease.1 The impacts of climate change are also a particular concern in the Asia Pacific region. According to the fifth report from the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific, which was released in November 2007, 'the human drama of climate change will largely be played out in Asia, where over 60 per cent of the world's population, around 4 billion people, live'.

Service contract: review of existing information on the interrelations between soil and climate change."

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Schils, Rene ...[et al.]

The European Commission has recently adopted the Thematic Strategy for soil protection (COM(2006)231 final), with the objective to ensure that Europe's soils remain healthy and capable of supporting human activities and ecosystems. Climate change is identified as a common element in many soil threats. Therefore the Commission intends to assess the actual contribution of the protection of soil to climate change mitigation and the effects of climate change on soil productivity and the possible depletion of soil organic matter as result of climate change. The objective of this study is to provide a state of the art and more robust understanding of interactions between soil under different land uses and climate change than is available now, through a comprehensive literature review and expert judgment.

The role of decentralized renewable energy technologies in adaptation to climate change in developing countries

Climate Change Resilience, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

South Centre

In October 1986, scientists and climatologists were gathered by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the International Council of Scientific Union (ICSU) at an international conference in Villach, Austria, to discuss the problem of anthropogenic interference in the Global Climate System (GCS). At the end of the conference, they declared jointly that the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gasses (GHG) due to the intensive industrial activity in developed countries is the origin of the long succession of temperature anomalies recorded by climatologists since the beginning of 20th century and will probably further stress the sensitivity of the GCS during the 21st century.

Towards pro-poor adaptation to climate change in urban centres of low and middle-income countries

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Moser Caroline

Satterthwaite David

This paper outlines a framework for adaptation to climate change for urban areas in low- and middle-income nations that is pro-poor and that enhances the capacity of low-income households and community organizations to contribute to such adaptation. It begins by describing how urban centres in low- and middle-income countries concentrate a large proportion of those most at risk from the effects of climate change - as people's lives, assets, environmental quality and future prosperity are threatened by the increasing risk of storms, flooding, landslides, heatwaves and drought that climate change is likely to bring. It also points to the weaknesses in the local institutions with responsibility for addressing this and the very large deficiencies in the infrastructure and services needed for protection. It also discusses the lack of attention given to supporting adaptation in urban areas by scientists, governments and international agencies, and considers why this is so.

Stormy weather: the challenge of climate change and displacement / David Corlett

Climate Change Resilience

Corlett David

A grim reality: climate change in the Pacific islands

Climate Change Resilience, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

United Nations in Pacific

Climate change is the defining human development issue of our generation. Pacific Island Countries are very much on the front line of climate change. Coastal inundation and erosion due to sea level rise and storm surges are predicted to increase in the Pacific region along with the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods and tropical cyclones. Face with such a grim reality, how are Pacific Island Countries dealing with this situation? This documentary highlights the problems facing Pacific Island Countries and offers a look at both the present political efforst and future needs of the region to address the many adverse impacts of climate change

Development, forest conservation and adaptation to climate change: a case for integrated community-based sustainability in rural Vanuatu

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Warrick Olivia

This paper is concerned with integrating adaptation to climate change with local development in the context of a climate change mitigation project for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. It is argued that integration will enhance locally appropriate and sustainable outcomes necessary for effective forest conservation in the context of rural Vanuatu. Concurrently, a community- based approach to assessing vulnerability is proposed whereby locally pertinent manifestations of climate- related exposure and adaptive capacity form the baseline of adaptive decision-making for integrated forest conservation and development. The approach is illustrated by a discussion of vulnerability and local development needs in the Tangoa Island community, South Santo, Vanuatu - a community particularly affected by tropical cyclones. Although effective adaptive strategies have evolved over time in Tangoa, these are unlikely to withstand the likely changes in magnitude and (perhaps) frequency of cyclones into the future with climate change. This is due to evolving non-climate stresses that largely intersect with locally defined development needs. Opportunities exist to reduce vulnerability to climate change by development pathways that address particular non-climate stresses. This provides a practical and tangible way of engendering community-based adaptation that would otherwise be unlikely in rural Vanuatu. The approach has application in other rural developing communities, both in Vanuatu and other developing countries.

Climate change and social change: vulnerability and adaptation in rural Vanuatu / Olivia Warrick

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Warrick Olivia

What is the nature of vulnerability and resilience to climate change at the community scale in Pacific island countries (PICs)? What approaches to climate change adaptation are most appropriate at this scale? These questions are examined in the context of rural Vanuatu, a Melanesian least developed country particularly susceptible to changes in climate variability and extremes. Fieldwork on the islands of Santo. Efate and Mota Lava interpreted vulnerability by beginning with local perceptions and experiences of dealing with climate risks. Vulnerability to climate arises from a context of rapid social change. Predominantly 'non-climate' factors such as population growth, land issues, changing traditional governance and eroding traditional knowledge are linked to changing agricultural practices, natural resource degradation, and increasing reliance on imports. These factors and processes affect the ways and degree to which communities are able to cope with climate stresses such as tropical cyclones, drought and heavy rain. However, research findings challenge the common notion that Pacific Island communities are inherently vulnerable; each community engages endogenous mechanisms of resilience. Aspects of this resilience may be threatened however especially where resilience depends on flexibility and self sufficiency, and particularly given increasing climatic uncertainty in the future, hi this context therefore, 'adaptation to climate change' requires communities to adapt to both changing climatic and social situations.

Community-based vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in rural Vanuatu: assessment: Mangaliliu village and Lelepa island, northwest Efate, 12th July - 14th August 2008

Climate Change Resilience

Available Online

Warrick Olivia

Report No. 1 presents preliminary results from fieldwork conducted with the Mangaliliu Lelepa Island community in mid 2008. This case study forms one of three assessments of community-based vulnerability and resilience to climate stress in rural Vanuatu undertaken as part of a PhD in Geography.

Fact sheet on climate change and biodiversity in the Pacific region [presented at] Regional capacity development workshop for the Pacific region on National Biodiversity Strategies and Action plans, Mainstreaming of Biodiversity and Integration of Climate change, Nadi, Fiji, 2-6 February 2009

Climate Change Resilience, Island and Ocean Ecosystems

Available Online

UNEP/CBD

The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 1/ revealed that climate change is threatening the very basis of life. In fact, 20-30 per cent of species assessed so far will face increased risks of extinction if global temperatures increase by 1.5-2.5°C, and critical ecosystems are already being degraded. For example, over the past 100 years, the thickness of sea ice in the Arctic has decreased by 40 per cent, while total available water in the Niger, Lake Chad and Senegal basins has decreased by 40-60 per cent, In the face of such changes to the basic structure and functions of ecosystems, climate change is already forcing species to adapt either through shifting habitat, changing life-cycles, or the development of new physical traits.

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