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There is no single approach to improving the ability of Forum Island Countries (FICs) to effectively respond to climate change. This paper provides a suite of options that can be considered by Pacific island countries to meet their diverse needs, aspirations and capacities. Implementation of these options, particularly at the national level, requires further country and donor specific considerations.

This report deals with food security and climate change in 15 Pacific Island economies.

The islands of the Pacific Oceania face unprecedented anthropogenic climate change within this century. Rising sea levels, increasing ocean acidification, warming land and sea temperatures, increasing droughts and changes in the frequency and intensity of storms are likely to reorder or destroy ecosystems such as coral reefs mangrove and montane forests and coastal wetlands.

This report has been prepared for the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency as part of the Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program (ASAP).

Considering the concerns of climate change and its impacts on coastal fisheries resources, SPC is implementing the ‘Monitoring the Vulnerability and Adaptation of Coastal Fisheries to Climate Change project with funding assistance from the Australian Government’s International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative (IRCA).

In addition to the extensive coral reef habitats described in Chapter 5, the shallow subtidal and intertidal zones around the coasts of Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) often support large areas of mangroves and seagrasses.

Regional environmental change - Supplement 1 - Articles included:|Climate hotspots: key vulnerable regions, climate change and limits to warming (Editorial)|Three views of two degrees (Jaeger CC., Jaeger J.)|Climate and conflicts: the security risks of global warming (Scheffran J., Battaglini A.)|Dangerous levels of climate change for agricultural production in China (Tao F., Zhang, Z., Yokozawa M.)|Impacts of climate change on Chinese ecosystems: key vulnerable regions and potential thresholds (Ni J.)|Climate change in Nepal and its impact on Himalayan glaciers (Shrestha AB., Aryal R.)|Implications of climate change in sustained agricultural productivity in South Asia (Lal M.)|Climate change, flooding in South Asia and implications (Mirza MMQ.)|Climate change risks in Sahelian Africa (Ben Mohamed A.)|Agriculture, livelihoods and climate change in the West African Sahel (Sissoko K., van Keulen H., Verhagen J., Tekken V., Battaglini A.)|Potential responses of terrestrial biodiversity in Southern Africa to anthropogenic climate change (Midgley GF., Thuiller W.)|Climate change and agricultural vulnerability: a case study of rain-fed wheat in Kairouan, Central Tunisia (Mougou R., Mansour M., Iglesias A., Chebbi RZ., Battaglini A.)|Towards a general relationship between climate change and biodiversity: an example for plant species in Europe (Alkemade R., Bakkenes M., Eickhout B.)|The responses of agriculture in Europe and climate change (Bindi M., Olesen JE.)|Toward adaptation of agriculture to climate change in the Mediterranean (Iglesias A., Mougou R. Moneo M., Quiroga S.)|Climate change, food stress, and security in Russia (Dronin N., Kirilenko A.)|Climate change threats to environment in the tropical Andes: glaciers and water resources (Chevallier P., Pouyaud B., Suarez W., Condom T.)|Climate change and Australia: key vulnerable regions (Hughes L.)|Dangerous climate change and water resources in Australia (Risbey JS.)|Australian agriculture: coping with dangerous climate change (Steffen W., Sims J., Walcott J., Laughlin G.)|Coral reef ecosystems and anthropogenic climate change (Hoegh-Guldberg O.)|Dangerous climate change in the Pacific islands: food production and food security (Barnett J.)|Critical vulnerabilities of marine and sea ice-based ecosystems in the high Arctic (Johannessen OM., Miles MW.)|Climate vulnerability of ecosystems and landscapes on Alaska's North Slope (Kittel TGF., Baker BB., Higgins JV., Haney JC.)|Interpreting 'dangerous' in the United Nations framework convention on climate change and the human rights of Inuit (Crowley, P.)

Climate change is one of the greatest ecological, economic, and social challenges facing us today. The scientific evidence that human activities are contributing to climate change is compelling, but society is increasingly seeking information about the nature of the evidence and what can be done in response to a changing climate. This book provides some of that much-needed information from some of Australia's leading climate scientists.

It is in our national interest to play its proportionate part in the world meeting what is now a goal that has been agreed by the international community: reducing global emissions to an extent that holds temperature increases to below 2 degrees Celsius. Australia has more to lose than any other developed country if this goal is not achieved. Australia has naturally a highly emissions-intensive economy, currently with far higher emissions per capita than any other developed country. Most other developed countries now have falling or steady emissions but, largely as a result of the contemporary resources boom, our emissions continue to increase rapidly. The naturally high emissions intensity of Australian production would not be a particular issue if there were deep international trade in entitlements generating comparable carbon prices over much of the global economy: unavoidable emissions costs would be embedded in international product prices, and Australia may be a large exporter of emissions-intensive products, and a large number of entitlements to emit greenhouse gasses.