Building resilience to climate-related loss and damage in Pacific island countries

This project aims to strengthen the resilience of Pacific island countries in the face of
climate-related loss and damage with a focus on Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Samoa, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Fiji. It focuses on understanding and addressing both economic and non-economic losses and damages caused by climate change, such as loss of culture, ancestral lands, and biodiversity.

By working closely with local communities, governments, and various stakeholders, the project will develop tools and strategies to measure and respond to non-economic losses and damages effectively. Additionally, it will enhance the capacity of Pacific island countries to address loss and damage at the community, national and regional level. It will also improve access to climate finance.

Through these efforts, the project seeks to safeguard the livelihoods, economies, and cultural identities of Pacific island countries while also contributing to global efforts to address loss and damage from climate change.

To that end, we are combining novel downscaled hazard projections with novel data on adaptation limits to produce sectoral loss and damage projections. We are also co-developing an assessment framework and valuation method with national stakeholders to assist efforts to record and assess non-economic losses at the community level.

This data will be provided as an input to national level loss and damage priorities, which in turn will be validated at the community level and used as a basis to cost select activities and develop concept notes as a basis for accessing financial support.