Climate Security: Implications on Low-Lying Atoll States in the Pacific
摘要
This chapter highlights an understudied area in the low-lying atoll states of the Pacific regarding the impacts of climate change on social cohesion, and its potential threats to statehood and territories. The chapter highlights findings of the Climate Security in the Pacific Project by UNDP and focuses on country-level activities comprising community-based pilots, and the climate security risk assessments. It explores scholarly articles that allude to the re-imagining of Pacific narratives as a way of addressing the existential and potential climate security threats in the three low-lying atoll states of Kiribati, the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), and Tuvalu. In the context of these three low-lying atoll states in the Pacific, security is not about terrorism, armed conflict, or nuclear proliferation, but climate change. Although these countries are politically stable and at low risk of violent conflicts, they are at risk of becoming uninhabitable due to the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise. The accumulation of climate change impacts on each of the three low-lying atoll states are occurring against the background of their complex colonial legacies, their current geostrategic significance, and their sometimes-strained community-level power relations, which is likely to cause future division and disputes. Despite their political stability and absence of violent conflicts within tribes and communities, structural violence (such as family-related gender-based violence) has been experienced by communities. With scarce landmass and extremely low elevation above sea level, the application of climate-friendly and innovative technology (although commendable) cannot ensure long-term food security as the continued existence of arable land is not guaranteed. Therefore, this chapter also explores narratives around ex-situ adaptation possibilities.