Adapted from the East-West Center Press Release 

Among the findings of the Fifth US National Climate Assessment, released by the White House, are that climate change in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands worsens inequities and threatens unique island ecosystems, along with cultural resources, human health, livelihoods, the built environment, and access to clean water and healthy food. The assessment concludes that adaptation strategies incorporating local and Indigenous knowledge can improve the resilience of Pacific Island communities, and that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit climate change impacts are now underway in every US region, including the Pacific Islands.

The report’s chapter on Hawaiʻi and US-Affiliated Pacific Islands was written by 16 authors, including Pacific RISA’s Abby Frazier, Victoria Keener, Zena Grecni, Kirsten Oleson, and Chris Shuler. The chapter has 41 technical contributors and is backed by nearly 500 citations from published literature.

“Climate change continues to threaten things we care about,” said Frazier, now an assistant professor at Clark University and the Hawai‘i-Pacific chapter’s lead author. “As the devastating hurricane-fueled wildfires on Maui and Typhoon Mawar in Guam made clear, when communities are already hurting from stressors like COVID-19, extreme weather can multiply harms. The sooner we scale up global action to curb threats from climate change, the better. Fortunately, cutting emissions or preparing for new extremes also creates immediate local benefits—improved health, a stronger economy, and more resilient communities.”

The chapter’s key takeaways for the region include:

• Climate change impairs access to healthy food and water. Increasing temperatures, altered rainfall, flooding, pollution, and fisheries decline will further affect food and water availability.
• Climate change undermines human health. Climate shocks and stressors compromise healthcare and worsen long-standing social and economic inequities that contribute to illness, but community strengths and adaptation measures can boost resilience.
• Rising sea levels harm infrastructure and islands’ economies. Sea level rise intensifies loss of territory and disrupts livelihoods, but governments and communities are innovating through renewable energy, green infrastructure, and sustainable economic growth.
• Responses help to safeguard tropical ecosystems and biodiversity. Increased fire risk, severe droughts, and ocean changes have broad negative impacts on native plants and wildlife, and ocean ecosystems. Effective adaptation strategies include ecosystem protection and restoration, invasive species measures, and fire prevention.
• Indigenous Peoples and their knowledge systems are central to the resilience of island communities amidst the changing climate.

New since the Fourth National Climate Assessment, published in 2018, is the chapter’s inclusion of a key message on human health and its emphasis on food security, integration of Indigenous knowledge, and recognition of data inequities for the Pacific Islands and US Caribbean.

About the Fifth National Climate Assessment

Mandated in the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the National Climate Assessment provides authoritative scientific information about climate change risks, impacts, and responses in the US. The assessment reflects the scientific consensus and is widely used for decision-making but does not include policy recommendations nor advocate for any specific policy.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment includes 32 chapters on physical science, national-level sectors (such as water, energy, agriculture, ecosystems, transportation, health, infrastructure, etc.), regional impacts in the US, and responses. The assessment was written by a diverse team of more than 500 authors and more than 250 technical contributors from every state. The report has undergone multiple rounds of review, including three opportunities for public comment, extensive agency review, and an external review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Hawai‘i and US-Affiliated Pacific Islands chapter has 16 authors and 41 technical contributors and is backed by nearly 500 citations from published literature.

Introducing a new resource on the NOAA RISA Sustained Assessment Specialist network! This 2-page, quick reference sheet provides information about sustained assessment and the current and recent specialists that serve RISA regions.

The RISA Sustained Assessment Specialist Network promotes cross-regional collaboration, leverages expertise, and promotes learning and just solutions within the adaptation community. The network advances a shared vision for sustained assessment.

Sustained assessment specialists (SASs) enhance adaptation and resilience efforts by strengthening the ability of the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) teams across the country to be a long-term resource for communities, building lasting relationships with information users. SASs are able to identify information needs and assess RISA contributions to adaptation progress over time, which allows for cross-RISA learning. SASs also use the identified needs in their regions to inform the National Climate Assessment process.

Sustained assessment builds upon subnational, federal, and international climate assessments by providing climate information in a way that is transparent, ongoing, and tailored to meet the needs of decision-makers that are seeking to address climate risk.

Contact the Pacific RISA SAS:

Zena Grecni
Sustained Climate Assessment Specialist,
Pacific RISA, East-West Center
Honolulu, HI
grecniz@eastwestcenter.org

“Biodiversity and climate are two sides of the same coin.”

~ Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank

Despite being postponed from 2020 to 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Marseille still hosted an impressive 4,000 global participants and hundreds of sessions, forums, and events centered around the Congress themes of climate change, freshwater, landscapes, governance, oceans, and more. The Pacific RISA team, represented in person by co-lead investigator Laura Brewington, and virtually by PI Zena Grecni, joined a large Delegation from Hawaiʻi that was led by the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance Foundation, the KUA movement, and the University of Hawaiʻi Environmental Law Program’s Our Drowning Voices team. The Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair, Suzanne Case, served as head of the Delegation, and dozens of events and presentations were held at the Hawaiʻi-Oceania Pavilion during the first six days of the Forum.

Dr. Brewington was involved in three sessions, which featured updates and achievements toward the Honolulu Challenge that were made by Pacific partners at the 2016 Congress, the synergistic effects of climate change and invasive species and the new Pacific RISCC management network, and partnerships for Pacific Island resilience to climate change. During the session on partnerships, Hawaiʻi Green Growth shared a video highlighting their leading role in Hawaiʻi’s Aloha+ Challenge and the UN Local2030 Islands Network. This was followed by a virtual panel discussion, hosted by PI Grecni, with participants from Guam, American Sāmoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands as they discussed climate research innovations and science-based adaptation initiatives in their islands. In particular, the session spotlighted leadership in building resilience, and the role of governments, practitioners, and researchers in developing the recent series of PIRCA reports for Pacific Islands.

“I don’t think that anyone at this conference is unaware of the impacts of climate change on Pacific peoples, communities, ecosystems, and islands”

~ Laura Brewington, Co-Lead of the Pacific RISA program

During the session on climate change and invasive species, Brewington and collaborators from the Pacific Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) management network shared voices from around the region, describing the challenges and opportunities for research on these synergistic threats. The US Fish and Wildlife Service offered an introduction to disease that threatens the very survival of Hawaiʻi’s native forest birds, as temperatures rise and invasive mosquitoes reach higher grounds. Focusing in on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (PICASC) shared a manager’s perspective from the Puʻuwaʻaʻwaʻa experimental forest unit, where the challenges of managing under drought and wildfire are magnified by pressure from ungulates and other disturbances. From Guam to American Sāmoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Pacific RISCC partners emphasized that dealing with the dual impacts of climate change and invasive species in islands is not a “one size fits all” approach, and requires greater collaboration and research to protect Pacific Island natural heritage into the future.

The Congress closed with call for a post-pandemic recovery based on nature, and the IUCN Members Assembly voted on numerous motions to propel countries and the international community toward urgent action on priority themes. Motion 003, to establish a seventh IUCN Commission focusing on the global climate emergency, passed with overwhelming support, thanks to the week’s concerted efforts by Hawaiʻi-Oceania Delegation members and supporters of Our Drowning Voices. Motion 003 will now become a component of IUCN’s general policy and influence the adoption of international environmental instruments, standards, agreements, and conservation best practices.

Watch

The Pacific RISA and partners share a panel on building resilience in Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Learn about the Aloha+ Challenge and how to get involved with Hawaiʻi Green Growth and the UN Local2030 Islands Network

The US Fish and Wildlife Service shares the agency’s mission and describe the twin threats of climate change and invasive species facing native Hawaiian forest birds

The Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center and the Hawaiʻi Division of Forestry and Wildlife discuss the challenges facing Hawaiʻi’s rangeland managers under changing drought and wildfire conditions

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Division of Fish and Wildlife shares how accelerated habitat loss, combined with the introduction of invasive species, is threatening endemic birds and other native plants and animals found only on these small islands of Micronesia

The American Sāmoa Visitors Bureau describes how climate change is bringing heavy rains, erosion, and damage, from the island’s coral reefs to farmland and mountaintops, but policies to reduce human impacts in those areas are only as strong as the and agencies who people enforce them

The Guam Department of Agriculture shares how the small island of Guam in Micronesia is deeply connected to the Asia-Pacific region through international trade and shipping, while being buffeted by the impacts of a changing climate