There is no doubt that our climate is changing. This will
pose huge challenges to nations, organisations, enterprises,
cities, communities and individuals. Developing
countries will suffer most from the adverse consequences
of climate change, and some highly vulnerable regions
and people are already being affected.
There is increasing agreement that if temperatures rise
by no more than 2 °C the earth’s integrity can be preserved
and many of the potentially grave consequences
of climate change could be avoided. This threshold is

It is becoming evident that if high-consumption societies are to tackle climate
change, signifi cant changes in production processes as well as in consumption
patterns will be required. Such transformations cannot be achieved unless
climate change is taken into account in the general and sector-specifi c policies
which underlie economic activity and general social development. When industry,
energy producers or transport companies take action as a result of climate
policies, they are also infl uenced signifi cantly by other policies. The degree to

Books of worksheets (linked to the SEREAD programme)containing experiments and exercises for tearchers and students to foster understandinf of weather

,climate,oceans and sea level rise.

Climate jenj I stap afektem Vanuatu bigwan 
naoia.  Ol jenj long ren mo tempaja I save 
spoilem agrikalja.  Climate change tu I stap 
bringim  ol  strongfala  win  olsem  tropical 
cyclone we I stap daonem plante crops blong 
yumi.
 

The GIZ project “Climate Protection through Forest Conservation in Pacific Island Countries” has produced a report on the existing legal framework in Vanuatu with regards to REDD+. This is a direct follow-up from the Vanuatu carbon rights study (2012).

Agriculture, livestock, and related activities make up roughly 25% of Uruguay’s economy. The contribution of agricultural activity to Uruguay’s exports is also large and growing. In this context, Minister Tabaré Aguerre presented on Uruguay’s AgroInteligente strategy, which includes: 1. Promotion of competitiveness and international integration 2. Sustainable intensification 3. Adaptation of production systems to climate change 4. Competitive inclusion of family agriculture in value chains 5.

This animation is a tool to raise awareness of the science and impacts of El Niño and La Niña and encourage Pacific Islanders to take early action in preparing for these extreme events. The film stars a comical and highly resilient crab and follows her escapades across the Pacific.

This paper sets out a framework for ‘Risk Governance’ to help practitioners mainstream climate and disaster risk1 into development decision making in the Pacific. It is based largely on the experiences of testing this framework in the Pacific via the Pacific Risk Resilience Programme (PRRP). It aims to:

i) articulate the rationale for strengthening risk governance as the foundation for transformational and therefore more sustained risk mainstreaming;

ii) draw upon lessons and challenges from mainstreaming other cross-cutting issues;

Pacific Island nations need more finance to adapt to the adverse effects of global warming, but they also need to manage the funds effectively, to benefit their most vulnerable communities. This report looks at three countries – Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tonga – to understand their experience of managing climate finance. The challenges they face include: improved coordination by donors; strengthened management across departments and with local governments; and better engagement with civil society.

Over the ages, human societies have altered local ecosystems and modified regional
climates. Today, the human influence has attained a global scale. This reflects the
recent rapid increase in population size, energy consumption, intensity of land use,
international trade and travel, and other human activities. These global changes have
heightened awareness that the long-term good health of populations depends on the
continued stability and functioning of the biosphere's ecological, physical, and
socioeconomic systems.

Business as usual in our globally interconnected food system will not bring us food security and
environmental sustainability. Several converging threats – from climate change, population
growth and unsustainable use of resources – are steadily intensifying pressure on humanity and
world governments to transform the way food is produced, distributed and consumed.
 

Global climate change and the significant impacts it can have
on people’s lives are a major challenge for developing countries.
Heavy floods, severe droughts and other weather extremes are
examples of those impacts which call for building up capacity
to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
While climate change will affect all regions of the world, people
in developing countries are the most vulnerable. That is
why adaptation is a priority for German development cooperation,
with many programmes already addressing the challenge

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,
as is now evident from observations of
increases in global average air and ocean temperatures,
widespread melting of snow and ice,
and rising global average sea level.”

Cost-benefit analysis is a framework to assess the merits of an activity (project, policy) from the
perspective of society (as opposed to a single individual). It involves:
• measuring the gains and losses (benefits and costs) from an activity to the community
using money as the measuring rod; and
• aggregating those values of gains and losses and expressing them as net community
gains or losses (see Pearce 1983).
 

Economic growth in Vanuatu has not matched the current population growth of 3% per
annum. This high population growth rate, coupled with a rapid increase in the number of people
migrating into the two main urban centres and increasing unemployment, is creating social and
economic problems. These problems are exacerbated by external shocks, such as world price
instability, and internal shocks, due to natural and man-made disasters, which have a negative
impact on the composition, stability and reliability of food availability and entitlements in
Vanuatu.

Ralph Regenvanu is a Vanuatu Member
of Parliament and Director of the Vanuatu
National Cultural Council. This article is an
edited version of a speech presented at
“Pacific Islands and the World” Conference
in Brisbane, 3 August 2009. The full
speech is available at: http://aidwatch.org.
au/publications/the-traditional-economyas-the-source-of-resilience-in-melanesia
 

Climate change, resulting from both
natural and anthropogenic factors, is
expected to affect virtually every aspect
of marine ecosystem structure
and function from community composition
and biogeochemical cycling,
to the prevalence of diseases. Climate
can affect all life-history stages
through direct and indirect processes
and the possible effects of climate
change for marine populations include
changes in population dynamics
(body size, reproduction), community
composition and geographical
distributions.