Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction1The increasing frequency and intensity of disaster events in recent decades underline the imperative for effective risk-reduction mechanisms to be developed to counter the impacts of the changing climate.2Nowhere is this imperative more relevant than for Pacific Island Microstates.3While in global terms, Pacific Island Microstates represent only a small proportion of people at risk of disasters,4 a constellation of social, political, geographical, * PhD, University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney). 1 Discussions in this paper form part of a larger work on decentralized governance and disaster displacement completed as a PhD thesis at the University of New South Wales.Luke Potter, 'Decentralized Governance and Disaster Displacement in Pacific Island Microstates: A Case Study of Palau' (Dissertation, University of New South Wales, Law Faculty, 2021). 2 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 'Summary for Policymakers' in Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.Contribution to Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (CUP 2022) SPM-7-SMP-8 , last accessed (as any subsequent URL) on 10 June 2022.3 Under a purely geographical umbrella, the Pacific region refers to all islands found in the Pacific Ocean.However, for the purposes of this paper, Pacific Island Microstates comprise 20 independent States and territories in the Pacific Ocean which fall within the sub-regions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia and have small population sizes and small land areas.These are Fiji; New Caledonia; Solomon Islands; Vanuatu; Federated States of Micronesia; Guam; Kiribati; Marshall Islands; Nauru; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau; American Samoa; Cook Islands; French Polynesia; Niue; Samoa; Tokelau; Tonga; Tuvalu; Wallis and Futuna.4 An estimate from the IPCC suggests that sea level rise alone could lead to the displacement of 1.6-5.3 million people from low lying island States, see Michael Oppenheimer and Bruce Glavovic (lead authors), 'Chapter 4: Sea Level Rise and Implications for Low-Lying Islands, Coasts and Communities' , in IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (Report, IPCC, 25 September 2019) ;see also Lavell and Ginnetti who estimated that approximately 20.300 people were at risk of being displaced per year in the 21 Pacific Island States and territories included in their study in 2014 -Chris Lavell and Justin Ginnetti, 'The Risk of Disaster-induced Displacement: South Pacific Island States' (Technical Paper, IDMC/NRC, January 2014) 19 at .
Author: Luke Potter
Institution: UNSW Sydney
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4366285195