Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program

The $12 million Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program aims to enhance the capacity of 14 partner countries in the Pacific1 and in East Timor to assess their vulnerability to climate change and incorporate climate change adaptation into their planning and development strategies. Such support builds the ability of countries to withstand the adverse impacts of climate change.

Activities include a number of country-specific assessments of climate change impacts and the identification of adaptation measures, initially addressing risks to coastal management, food and water security. An overview of adaptation in the region is also included, which will describe regional trends and variability in climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptive capacity; and identify common needs, lessons learned, relevant good practice and significant knowledge/research gaps.

The program is being developed and implemented in close consultation with partner countries and regional organisations.

For example, in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program is supporting an assessment of climate change impacts on food security, conducted as a partnership between the Office of Environment and Emergency Management and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

The Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program:

  • Has invested in a number of regional projects to improve capacities for adaptation planning. For example, the Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program, through the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program, has supported the development of Joint National Action Plans on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in the Republic of the Marshal Islands, Cook Islands, Niue, the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru (which also sought support to develop a climate change policy).
  • Has supported national consultation on the draft National Framework for Climate Change and Climate Change Adaptation.
  • Is investing in regional analyses of major climate risks to the Pacific region, with a focus on key challenges around coastal management, food and water security.
  • Will produce an overview of adaptation in the region for release in mid 2012. This report will outline key climate risks and vulnerabilities for partner countries in the Pacific and will identify common needs, lessons learned, and an agenda for future Australian investment in the region.

Program activities align with each country’s identified priorities for adapting to climate change and have integrated where possible with existing programs and donor support.

The Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program supported a regional conference in Samoa, in May 2011, to encourage cooperation on climate change. The Lessons Learned for Future Action Conference: Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Small Island Developing States, brought together over 120 representatives from East Timor and small island developing states in the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.

Conference participants shared experiences and identified common challenges and good practices to improve adaptation efforts in vulnerable countries. The conference also identified key lessons relating to:

  • information and awareness-raising; national planning and policy frameworks
  • community-based responses to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
  • strategies and on-ground implementation options, and
  • capacity development.

At the conclusion of the conference, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre signed a Memorandum of Understanding for further collaboration between the Caribbean and the Pacific regions.

Participants agreed that in order to act upon the lessons learned and experiences shared during the conference, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, in consultation with other partners, agencies and countries would:

  • strengthen existing and develop new regional frameworks
  • establish collaborative research networks
  • develop exchange programs and learning networks within and between regions, and
  • explore means to provide better climate change information.
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1. Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.