In Palau, Ms. Moehlenkamp met with diverse stakeholder groups from across the Pacific Islands region and helped present initial efforts on identifying climate and ocean impact metrics as part of a network of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Dashboards. Ms. Moehlenkamp and the Local2030 Island Network team were involved in three sessions, which featured updates and achievements of the Network:

The Local 2030 Island Network Inaugural Members Roundtable, assembled on April 12, 2022, was the first in-person high-level meeting convened by the Local2030 Islands Network. Secretary Kerry opened the meeting by noting the importance of island leadership in addressing the climate crisis and the opportunity to strengthen lasting relationships to build resilience. President Whipps spoke of fostering knowledge sharing amongst islands, and the importance of accountability for ensuring progress. President Whipps and Secretary Kerry were joined at the in-person gathering by Leaders, Ministers and other senior officials from island economies that are network members including the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Guam, Hawai’i and  Ireland, as well as observers to the meeting such as New Zealand and Australia. Members discussed taking concrete action in support of joint objectives, including positioning the Network to support policies and steps to achieve the SDGs through island values and innovation; growing Network membership to represent the global diversity of island economies; and launching Communities of Practice (CoPs) to build local capacity around high-priority issues. The agenda focused on facilitating a candid high-level dialogue around key policy issues and providing a platform for sharing concrete island solutions to climate and sustainability topics.

Building on the Island Network Inaugural Members Roundtable event, the Local2030 Islands Network convened Data for Ocean & Climate Resilience Side Event on April 12th, which included a panel to discuss the Hawai’i Aloha+ and Guam Green Growth framework and utility of dashboards and data to track local progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gov. Lourdes Leon Guerrero of Guam provided opening remarks and spoke about the process of building the Guam Green Growth action framework in order to stand up the dashboard for tracking progress towards Guam’s Sustainable Development Goals. Other speakers included Data & Innovation Director Kaimana Bingham from the Hawai’i Local 2030 Hub, Hawai’i Island Mayor Mitch Roth, Director of UOG Center for Island Sustainability Austin Shelton, and Minister Ngiraibelas Tmetuchl of the Ministry of Human Resources, Culture, Tourism, and Development. Members agreed that a dashboard mechanism for tracking progress can be key to promoting transparency and accountability.

The impact of the Micronesia Challenge to 2020 was showcased at the Micronesia Challenge 2030: Ocean people Leading Ocean Action Side Event. The Micronesia Challenge has expanded conservation of marine and terrestrial environment, leveraged significant resources, and scaled leadership in technical capacity across Micronesia, inspiring global commitment from other regions, including Hawaii. This event formally launched the Micronesia 2030 Challenge to spearhead a blue recovery and decade of action to achieve the UN2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Panelists included former Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr, Celeste Conors, Executive Director at Hawaii Green Growth, Palau Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment Steven Viktor, and Gov. Leon Guerrero from Guam. Ms. Moehlenkamp engaged with stakeholders involved in the Micronesia Challenge and discussed how the 2030 Micronesia Challenge goals can be highlighted and tracked through dashboards. 

The Hawaii team also held a briefing for President Whipps on the Palau dashboard, highlighting key data tracking progress towards SDG 14 – Life Below Water. They discussed the construction of a Palau Green Growth framework and a Palau Dashboard. The President identified 5 focus areas to highlight on the dashboard: Strengthening the Palauan Workforce, Protecting Livelihoods, Investing in Our Children, Taking Care of Our Health and Social Services, and Ensuring Security and Safety. 

Ms. Moehlenkamp and Ms. Bingham also met with Charlene Mersai, National Environmental Protection Council, Mr. Ngiraibelas Tmetuch, Director of Palau Visitors Authority and Kaleb Udui, Jr., Minister of Finance, Minister of Finance to discuss leadership and options for the dashboard. The importance of designating a local dashboard coordinator that convenes stakeholders from diverse sectors across Palau to identify relevant data sets and appropriate SDG impact metrics that are inclusive, stakeholder-driven, and will meet community needs was discussed.

After a busy conference week, the team was invited to join a tour with the Palau Visitors Authority and experienced Palau’s natural wonders, including the world famous Rock Islands and Jellyfish Lake. As many conference attendees joined the tour, it presented an excellent opportunity to network and discuss opportunities to conserve Palau’s uniquely rich and biodiverse natural environment.

In the weeks prior to the Climate Change and Health Dialog, confirmed cases of dengue fever in RMI rose from around 60 new cases a week to more than 120 a week, with an estimated 8,000 of the country’s 53,000 citizens infected (Figure 1). Persistent dry, warm weather punctuated by short periods of intense rain have exacerbated the problem since the Christmas holiday season. This record-breaking epidemic has occurred in tandem with other, smaller outbreaks related to a lack of clean water: typhoid fever, diarrheal disease, and conjunctivitis.

Around 100 participants attended the Opening Ceremony of the Dialog (Figure 2), including His Excellency, RMI President David Kabua, former President Hilda Heine, the Honorable Ministers of Health and the Environment, the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Health, Senators and Mayors representing many of the islands and atolls, the World Health Organization Liaison for Micronesia, and high school and college students from Majuro and Ebeye.

Speaking to all those gathered, Secretary of Health Jack Niedenthal explained, “The reason why climate change impacts the RMI and other nations of Micronesia so severely is that we have one of the highest rates of diabetes, tuberculosis in the world, so our health system is already overtaxed.”

The dialog process first asked participants to break into small groups and describe health outbreaks in the form of a timeline, then link them with climate and weather events that occurred at similar times, such as king tides, drought, and heat waves. Matthew Widlansky from the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Level Center and Reginald White from the National Weather Service Majuro office then described existing products and tools for the RMI region that have good predictive capacity for these key events.

On the second day of the workshop, small groups focused on identifying the types of products that would aid health officials in assessing early warning for the health impacts of climate variability and change, particularly vector-borne and waterborne diseases. The workshop concluded with a set of next steps for generating an early warning system for the health sector using the relevant forecast products in tandem with NOAA, the University of Hawaiʻi, and the National Weather Service Majuro office.

Contact: Ja-Rei Wang, jwang@ucsusa.org, 202-331-6943

Nearly Seven in Ten Hawai’i Residents Think Fossil Fuel Companies Should Pay For Global Warming Damages, According to New Poll

Hawai’i Support for Fossil Fuel Company Climate Change Responsibility Ranked Highest Among U.S. States

WASHINGTON (June 19, 2019)— Ahead of next week’s U.S. mayors’ climate change summit in Honolulu, a new survey found that nearly seven in ten adults in Hawai’i think fossil fuel companies should pay for some portion of global warming damages. The nationally representative survey conducted by Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communications (YPCCC) and supported by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) asked Americans across the country their opinions about responsibility for global warming damages. YPCCC polled 5,131 adults in five waves from November 2018 to January 2019 and used a geographic and statistical model developed by its team of scientists to downscale public opinion results to the state, congressional district and county levels, which are searchable through this interactive map.

“These poll results show strikingly widespread public support for the principle of ‘polluter pays’—that fossil fuel companies should be held responsible to pay for the climate mess they have created,” said Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy and chief climate scientist at UCS. “For decades, fossil fuel companies knowingly misled the public about the climate risks of their products.” The poll found that two-thirds of people across the U.S. distrust fossil fuel companies. Frumhoff continued: “Communities across the nation now confront growing extreme weather and rising seas fueled by climate change—harms that could have been largely avoided had companies acted responsibly.”

The poll found:

• Nearly seven in 10 Hawai’i residents (68 percent) think fossil fuel companies have either “a great deal” or “a moderate” amount of responsibility for the damages caused by global warming.
• Roughly the same proportion (69 percent) support making fossil fuel companies pay for a portion of the damages to local communities caused by carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels.
• Support for fossil fuel companies paying climate damages is high among residents of all four counties in the state.
• More than six in 10 Hawai’i adults (63 percent) support local officials filing a lawsuit to make companies pay a portion of damages in an area.
• Three-quarters of Hawai’i adults distrust fossil fuel companies.

“In the past month, Hawai’i has seen more than a dozen record-setting high temperature days,” said Dr. Victoria Keener, research fellow at the East-West Center. “We see rainfall patterns changing, coral reefs bleaching and dying, and sea levels rising. We have more than $19 billion at stake—just in the value of land and structures in Hawai’i expected to flood by 2100, and that doesn’t include the social costs. As lead author of the Hawai’i and Pacific Islands chapter of the 4th US-National Climate Assessment, I know more damaging climate impacts are in store for the state and region. Cities and states must dramatically increase our resiliency efforts, which raises a question: how are Hawaii’s residents and businesses going to bear these costs?”

Since 2017 a growing number of municipalities across the country have sued major fossil fuel companies for knowingly contributing to property damage, public health impacts and climate adaptation costs. The state of Rhode Island, New York City, Baltimore, eight coastal California cities and counties, three Colorado cities and counties, and one Washington county have filed lawsuits to help their residents better adapt to and mitigate climate change impacts and ensure taxpayers alone don’t foot the bill.

“The survey echoes the deep concerns I’ve heard from my colleagues here at the university and all over the islands,” said Denise Antolini, associate dean at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “Kamaʻāina know from their own personal experience that we are experiencing dramatic reductions in cooling tradewinds, mangos flowering early, and loss of precious sandy beaches. Government and legal scholars must engage in serious dialogue to find realistic options to pay for billions on adaptation costs, including the proposal for fossil fuel companies to pay their fair share of the impacts of excessive carbon emissions. This survey is a kāhea—a call to action—and we better pay attention, now.”

For more on poll results for other states, including those with surprisingly high public support for the “polluter pays” concept, see Peter Frumhoff’s blog.

###

The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet’s most pressing problems. Joining with people across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.

Pacific RISA Research Fellow Dr. Kati Corlew contributed an article about climate change and social instability to the Community Psychology Practice blog last month, and we are pleased to share it with you here.  Her timely article explains that a well-established tenant of community psychology–that context matters–can be helpful in predicting how societies may be impacted by climate change.  The article offers research documenting how change or variability in the natural environment affects our physical and psychological well-being as individuals and communities.

Dr. Corlew received her Ph.D. in Community and Cultural Psychology at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. Her dissertation explored the threat of climate change to both land and culture in the Pacific Island Developing Country (PIDC) of Tuvalu.  Now, she is developing a social network analysis of climate change professionals in the Pacific Islands region as part of her work with Pacific RISA.

Psychology of Climate Change: Social Instability

By Kati Corlew, Ph.D.

Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments

East-West Center

American Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III is the top military officer for the security of the United States in the Pacific, including trans-Pacific security threats from North Korea and other Asian locations. He is the leader of the United States Pacific Command (PACOM), which monitors security for a region covering approximately one half of the earth’s surface.

In March, 2013, Admiral Locklear stated that climate change is the largest threat to security in the region, as reported by the Boston Globe.

Admiral Locklear stated:

“Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.”

Storms of this magnitude damage infrastructure and disrupt the stability of societal functioning. Crops are destroyed and freshwater is contaminated. With basic needs and social structures thrown into disorder or destroyed completely, communities (or even entire countries or regions) are left in a state of heightened instability that threatens security.

Additionally, sea level rise threatens the long-term ability of coastal and island communities to continue to be communities. The Boston Globe goes on to report:

“The ice is melting and sea is getting higher,” Locklear said, noting that 80 percent of the world’s population lives within 200 miles of the coast. “I’m into the consequence management side of it. I’m not a scientist, but the island of Tarawa in Kiribati, they’re contemplating moving their entire population to another country because [it] is not going to exist anymore.”

Wholesale migration of entire populations due to climate instability is expected to overlap heavily with the experiences of refugees from political instability and war. Climate refugees will be populations who have lost everything, perhaps even their country. Without their community structures and relationships, property, and political power, populations who are forced to migrate because of climate change may wind up in a nebulous, uncertain, and inherently unstable position. Instability is often coupled with violence.

In Community Psychology, we explore the ways in which our social, political, and natural environments affect the physical and psychological well-being of individuals and communities. In essence, context matters. Researchers have been documenting the effects of climate change and variability on community well-being. It has been shown, for example, that countries experiencing El Niño are more likely to also experience war.

“Countries where the majority of the population lives in areas that become much warmer in El Niño years (red) are more likely to experience wars than those where temperatures are less affected (blue).”

Of course, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO, which includes El Niño and La Niña) is a seasonal weather pattern, not climate change. Do these things even relate? A recent consensus report about climate change in the Pacific indicates that they do.

Despite rumors of perfect and unchanging island weather, the Pacific is actually home to some pretty dramatic seasonal changes. A strong El Niño year can mean some island nations run out of drinking and irrigation water while others are plagued with storms. La Niña years can have similarly dramatic effects. In fact, the difference between an El Niño year and a La Niña year can be so strong that in the coming decades, the effects of climate change may be overwhelmed.

That is to say, in some years ENSO may greatly exacerbate climate change, while in other years ENSO could reverse the trends entirely. This means that we cannot expect to see a smooth slope of increasing impacts with climate change. We will instead see periodic upswings in disasters and climate change impacts, coupled with periods of relative calm.

In the coming decades, we can therefore expect periodic upswings in social instability. These “human dimensions” of climate change impacts on communities must be addressed along with the physical impacts.

References

Bender, B. (2013). Chief of US Pacific forces calls climate biggest worry. The Boston Globe, March 09, 2013. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/03/09/admiral-samuel-locklear-commander-pacific-forces-warns-that-climate-change-top-threat/BHdPVCLrWEMxRe9IXJZcHL/story.html.

Burke, J. (2012). Maldives’ political instability allows gang violence to flourish. The Guardian, October 22, 2012. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/22/maldives-political-instability-gang-violence.

Burkett, M. (2011). The Nation Ex-Situ: On climate change, deterrritorialized nationhood and the post-climate era. Climate law, 2, 345-374. Retrieved 3/15/13 from https://www.law.hawaii.edu/sites/www.law.hawaii.edu/files/content/coliver/345-374%20Burkett.pdf.

Duddy, P. D. (2012). Political unrest in Venezuela. Council on Foreign Relations Contingency Planning Memorandum No. 16. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.cfr.org/venezuela/political-unrest-venezuela/p28936.

Keener, V. W., Marra, J. J., Finucane, M. L., Spooner, D., & Smith, M. H. (Eds.). (2012). Climate Change and Pacific Islands: Indicators and Impacts. Report for The 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment. Washington, DC: Island Press. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.pacificrisa.org/projects/pirca/report-materials/#.UUN9tByG3D4.

Kovats, R. S., Bouma, M. J., & Haines, A. (1999). El Niño and health. World Health Organization Protection of the Human Environment Task Force on Climate and Health. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/en/elnino.pdf.

Schiermeier, Q. (2011). Climate cycles drive civil war. Nature, 24 August 2011. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110824/full/news.2011.501.html.

Smith, H. (2013). Greece’s fragile political stability at risk as violence escalates. The Guardian, January 23, 2013. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/23/greeces-political-stability-violence-escalates.

Turchin, P. (2012). Dynamics of political instability in the United States, 1780-2010. Journal of Peace Research, 49(4), 577-591. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/49/4/577.abstract.

Vidal, J., Saeed, S. (2013). Bangladesh’s climate refugees: ‘It’s a question of life’ – audio slideshow. The Guardian UK, January 29, 2012. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2013/jan/29/bangladesh-climate-refugees-audio-slideshow.

Williams, N., & Pradhan, M. S. (2009). Political conflict and migration: How has violence and political instability affected migration patterns in Nepal? Population Studies Center Research Report No. 09-677. Retrieved 3/15/13 from http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs/5938.

Cover photo: Local risk reduction actions, such as using coral rocks to build temporary walls in Kiribati to break the swell of increasingly large king tides, is one example of communities acting to reduce their vulnerability.  Photo by UNISDR; used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

On Dec. 26, Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie announced his selection to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by  Senator Daniel K. Inouye’s passing on Dec. 17.  Lt. Governor Brian Schatz will assume the position and will serve through 2014, at which time the seat will be up for re-election.

In his acceptance speech, Lt. Governor Schatz named just a couple of top issues that he will tackle.  Among them was climate change.  “I  believe global climate change is real and it is the most urgent challenge of our generation,” said the soon-to-be Senator.

Earlier this month, Lt. Governor Schatz gave the opening address at the Pacific Islands Regional Climate Forum held at the East-West Center, which convened over 200 scientists, decision makers, and interested members of the public to review and discuss findings of the 2012 Pacific Islands Regional Climate Assessment report.  A champion of climate change adaptation, Schatz also supported the development of priority guidelines to address climate change, which were added to the State Planning Act through Hawaii’s Act 286 last year.

Lt. Governor Schatz will leave tonight for Washington D.C. to assume the Senate seat representing Hawaii. He promised in his remarks that he would continue to stay in contact with and work with the University of Hawaii and other groups here in the islands.

“Can you weather a white paper on climate change?”  Beth-Ann Kozlovich, host of Hawaii Public Radio’s weekday morning talk show The Conversation, asked this question by means of an introduction for Wednesday morning’s guest.  Ms. Kozlovich spoke with ICAP’s Senior Attorney, Richard Wallsgrove, about the recent ICAP white paper that he co-authored, titled, Water Resources and Climate Change Adaptation in Hawai‘i:  Adaptive Tools in the Current Law and Policy Framework.

Market-based adaptive tools and conservation measures recommended in the white paper were main topics of the conversation.  Mr. Wallsgrove explained, “In the state right now, we use more than 300 million gallons per day.  If we put that into milk jugs and laid them end to end, they would wrap around the earth twice every day.”  This level of current water use, paired with observed climate trends such as decreasing rainfall, rising temperatures, and rising sea-levels, led him to conclude that Hawai‘i’s water future is “very scary.”

Mr. Wallsgrove explained that cost-effective measures, such as a rebate system for water-conserving retrofits and online water use reporting, could have cost saving benefits now and allow for a more secure water future.

You can listen to the show in The Conversation’s archive.  The interview with Mr. Wallsgrove begins at 35:30.  The show airs weekday mornings from 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. local time on KIPO FM89.3 and KIPM FM89.7.

In August 2012, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court ruled to vacate a 2010 decision made by the state Commission on Water Resource Management that impacts stream flows in Nā Wai ʻEhā, or the four great waters of Maui.

Two Maui community groups and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs appealed the June 2010 water commission decision that amended instream flow standards for the Waiheʻe River and the Waiehu, ʻĪao, and Waikapū streams on Maui.  Currently, much of the water that once flowed in Nā Wai ʻEhā is being diverted for commercial use.  Commissioner Lawrence Miike dissented the 2010 decision, and had recommended restoring around half of the approximately 70 million gallons a day (mgd) diverted.  The commission decision had restored only 12.5 mgd, setting a standard that left two of the streams completely dry.

The state supreme court justices concluded that the water commission had failed to properly consider traditional and customary Native Hawaiian practices and the public’s rights to flowing streams.  Further, the court ruled that the commission needed to more thoroughly investigate and consider possible alternative water sources, such as non-potable wells and recycled wastewater. The court remanded the case back to the commission for a new decision that is consistent with the court’s ruling.

“When I look at ʻĪao and Waikapū Streams, they’re bone-dry, nothing but skeletal remains,” Rose Marie Hoʻoululāhui Lindsey Duey of Hui o Nā Wai ʻEhā told Earth Justice. “The supreme court’s decision restores my hope that the law stands for something, and that each of Nā Wai ʻEhā’s four streams will flow like justice from mauka (mountain) to makai (ocean).”

Hawaiian farmers in Nā Wai ʻEhā have long sought to end diversions and restore stream water, which supports traditional taro farming, native freshwater species, and near-shore fisheries, among other traditional practices and resources.  This conflict over diversion of the Nā Wai ʻEhā  began decades ago, and the ruling is considered a major victory for taro-farming communities on Maui.  Like the landmark Waiāhole decision in 2000, the court’s August 2012 ruling affirms the commission’s duty to enforce legal mandates of the public trust and has significant implications for future water commission decisions.

Photos: The ʻĪao stream flowing above diversion point (top) and the dry stream bed below the diversions. Source: Earthjustice 2012