Vulnerable States: Pacific Island Countries.

Communities exposed to extreme weather events, and who have limited resources and options available to them, find it extremely difficult to mount an adequate adaptive response. Many Small Island Developing States fall in this category and are therefore considered highly vulnerable to changes in climate. Multiple factors generate this vulnerability; some are direct and readily seen. These are immediate, often dramatic, and feature widely on international news media as broad-scale disasters wreaking havoc on hapless populations. Indirect effects are often more insidious and more pervasive. They erode factors necessary for human health and well-being, reduce resilience, deepen vulnerability, and can entrench the long-term disadvantages based on geosociopolitical inequities. Increasing climate variability overlays and can exacerbate this. Addressing the vulnerability will not be simple and cannot be conceptualized as solely climate adaptation initiatives. Instead, adaptation must focus on whole community capacity building.