Policy Briefs on Climate Change and Conflict

This Policy Brief, the fourth of a series on matters related to climate change (im)mobility, addresses the prospective domestic consequences for Pacific Island Countries and Territories from which international climate change emigrants may depart. It outlines how emigration has affected PICTs not only in general socio-economic terms but also in terms of exposure and vulnerability to climate change effects and capacity to adapt to them. It will also consider the likely futures of those PICTs with high levels of (forced?) immobility. The Policy Brief concludes with a consideration of the key issues identified in this four-part series.

This Summary Report from the ‘The Pacific and its Peoples in a Changing Climate: Pasifika Wisdom and Relational Security’ workshop, co-hosted by the Toda Peace Institute and the Australian National University Pacific Institute. It was held in Canberra in September 2023 and attended by around 50 researchers, practitioners and policymakers from Pacific Island countries, Australia and New Zealand with expertise on climate change, its environmental, social and cultural effects, climate security and environmental peacebuilding. This report addresses the key issue areas, summarises core arguments made and focuses on selected findings with particular relevance for research as well as for policy and practice.

This Policy Brief focuses on international migration from and within the Pacific region. Its aim is to clarify some of the issues that link climate change with migration as well as to provide a baseline understanding of contemporary migration patterns in the region. Hopefully this will provide some context for considering the role of climate change-influenced migration that may have already occurred in some instances, and which may be anticipated in the future.

This Policy Brief discusses, and provides an overview of, the impacts of climate change on health in the Pacific Island countries (PICs). Physical and mental health in PICs is particularly vulnerable to climate change, both directly, as an outcome of temperature increases and hazards, and indirectly, through increased threats to livelihoods. The health impacts of climate change constitute a slowly increasing threat to human security, but policies and practices centred on workforce development may minimise such threats and risks. The Policy Brief concludes with suggestions and recommendations for policy directions.

This policy brief seeks to examine the key barriers and limits preventing the Pacific from achieving its climate security goals through adaptation and what options might exist for the Pacific to overcome such constraints. Climate change remains the single greatest security threat to the Pacific Islands region. With emissions gaps persisting and agreements on mitigation efforts remaining contested, enabling opportunities for adaptation is now more crucial than ever for Pacific Island countries to meet their climate security ambitions.