By: Ms.

Angileeta Ashni Devi

Year 2011

POLICY, ADAPTION OR MITIGATION ON THE IMPACT OF

CLIMATE CHANGE

INTRODUCTION

The Republic of the Fiji Islands lies in the heart of the southwest Pacific Ocean, between
longitudes 175º East and 178º West and latitudes 15º and 22º South. The Fiji Group is
made up of two major islands – Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, with land areas of 10 429 and 5
556 square kilometers respectively. There are other smaller islands that are part of this
group. The tragedy is that the land in heart of the Pacific Ocean is slowly being consumed
by the rise in the sea level. This is due to the climate change which is a reality and its
impacts are felt daily by communities around the world.

One of the key contributions to this climate change in Fiji is overexploitation of resources
and unsustainable practices that is affecting the socio-economic structure of Fiji in turn
reducing the resilience of the environment and increasing its vulnerability to the adverse
effects of climate change. Therefore, the Fiji government has developed various sustainable
management policies with the realization that such polices will be the most beneficial
response strategy to help cope with and other climate change environmental and socio-
economic problems. One such important policy for Fiji Islands is the policy on climate
change. This is in line with the Principles contained in Article 3 of the UNFCCC which
refers to the development of policies and measures related to sustainable development, by
parties, to protect the climate system against human-induce change and these should be
integrated with national development programme.

Fighting climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) 11 emissions will not be
sufficient enough to ensure that the environmental and social challenges of global warming
are overcome. It is also crucial for communities to adapt to climate change. Adaptation in
this context is defined as ‘actions taken to help communities and ecosystems cope with

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GHG is the short term for the green house gas that is directly responsible for climate
change
changing climate conditions’ (UNFCCC). Adaptation is not a new concept. Over time,
human beings and ecosystems have adapted to different environments and conditions. The
current challenge however lies in keeping up with the rapidly increasing need for
adaptation measures as a consequence of climate change,
ensuring that adaptation is considered in political and economic decision-making and is
translated into action.

To add on to this dilemma, the current policy in Fiji focuses both on the research initiatives
on adaption and on mitigation. But in a world of limited resources, money, and time, we
will be needed to choose between the two. Neither adaptation nor mitigation alone will be
adequate and sometimes they may overlap. However, this paper presents five ways in
which I think that mitigation is superior then adaption22. The first part of the essay
differentiates between adaption and mitigation. The second part deals with the policy
implementation in Fiji on climate change and the umbrella under which it is operated. The
final part of the essays gives the reasons in which I believe scientific evidence tilts the
balance strongly toward mitigation efforts when compared to adaption initiatives in climate
change. I will be following this format in the presentation and I conclude by saying that
‘prevention is better than cure’ when we compare the core aims of adaption and mitigation.
If we wait too long to prevent climate change we will, perhaps sooner than later, create
conditions beyond reach of any conceivable adaptive measures for the future generations to
question.

Part I
ADAPTION AND MITIGATION
Adaptation to climate change is the ability of environmental systems (including humans) to
adjust to practices and processes, or make the most of opportunities created by a changing
climate. Mitigation on the other hand involves taking purposeful actions that deal with the
causes of climate change with a view of reducing them. Mitigation measures may include;
reducing GHG3 emissions by aforestation, reducing deforestation, improving energy
efficiency, performance of buildings, reducing the use of travel and ensuring good

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From my research findings mitigation tackles the causes of climate change while adaption
tackles the effects of the phenomenon. In my understanding mitigation has to do with
reducing or stopping climate change while adaption has to with fitting in the situation
caused by climate change.
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accessibility to public and other modes of transfer. It also includes promoting land use that
acts as carbon sinks, encouraging development and use of renewable energy, as well as
reducing the amount of biodegradable land filled. Adaptation on the other hand includes
guiding development to areas which offer guard from impacts such as flooding, erosion,
storms, water shortage and subsidence. This measure also ensures that new and existing
building are more resistant to climate change impacts, sustainable drainage measures and
high standards of water efficiency is incorporated into building stock increasing food
storage capacity and developing sustainable new water resources.

The potential negative impact of climate change is nowhere more significant than in the
small island states of the Pacific Island region. Many of the region’s countries have already
been affected by climate change, and for many of these countries, there are no alternatives
to effectively addressing climate change issues through adaptation and mitigation
measures. Some of the problems are lowland flooding, saltwater intrusion and coastal
erosion as many communities throughout the Pacific inhabit coastal lowlands. Changing
rainfall patterns, increased drought periods, increased cyclone intensity and rising sea level
are likely to affect all sectors and communities of the Pacific Small Island Developing
States (PSIDS) as a whole.

What we do to address climate change and the choices we make today will affect and have
consequences for people and their families now and in the near future. If left unaddressed,
these consequences could be apocalyptic and devastating on the livelihood potential and
survival for many. Proactive action now will help minimize the impact of climate change
on people’s work, earning and survival capacity. It will help cushion and mitigate the
severity of impact on the international community’s efforts to reduce extreme poverty as
part of the MDG goals, an agenda that has already had much commitment of human and
financial resources towards significant progress in the past.

Part II
POLICY
Coastal regions are of much importance to human socio-economic activities. As a result
much of the Fijis population live along, or within kilometers of, coasts. Most of the resorts
are also near the coast and all these are on a collision course with climate change. The
South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) was established by 25 member

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countries achieve the purpose through the Action Plan 2001 –2004 “to improve the Pacific
island member’s understanding of and strengthen their capacity to respond to climate
change, climate variability and sea level rise. This framework represents the national
interests and priorities of Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Under this we have the Capacity
Building Development of Adaptation Measures in Pacific Island Countries (CBDAMPIC)
which is a project to enable an adaptation to climate change project focusing on improving
the sustainable livelihood of Pacific Island people by increasing their adaptive capacity to
climate-related risks. The project is implemented in four countries, which are Cook Islands,
Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu.

The CBDAMPIC project finally comes down to the Fiji National Policy For Climate
Change Adaption. The latest initiatives were carried out by the National Climate Change
Adaptive Strategy (NCCAS) at Suva, on 29th March, 2011 that sets out a systematic, long-
term approach for embedding climate change adaptation into core functional activities
which includes an action plan that details substantive interventions to address adaptation
needs, with allocation of responsibilities and a definitive timeline for their implementation
aligned with existing strategies, policies and action plans. The current policy is inculcated
in the Strategic Development Plan 2003-2005, Fisheries Act, Forest Act, Land
Conservation and Improvement Act, Public Health Act, Town Planning Act, Water Supply
Act, National Disaster Management Act and Land Use Policy.

Since, these climate change projects are so well funded by the organizations everybody is
going for it. Whether it is the nation’s well being that is policy attracting the national
government or the fund that is given for a policy to be implemented still remains as a
brooding question for any community. Through various readings I am able to say that
though there are social and community issues that need to be looked into before any policy
is to be implemented. A community’s ability to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate
change depends on that community’s vulnerability to change, resilience, and adaptive
capacity. Decreasing communities’ vulnerabilities while strengthening their adaptive
capacities depends on access to relevant information, and spatial information managed
technologies which is not easily understood or assessable by the communities.

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This often means that needed information resides in sectoral or departmental databases
without any easy sharing mechanism to facilitate informed and holistic decision making.
Pilot cities like Lami Town which is one of the industrial area for GHG emission has
already begin profiling their council operations with intention to expand to relevant sectors
to strategically monitor the level of GHG emissions within administrative boundaries to
then identify short term mitigation strategies and whether it is monitored still remains a
question at large. While adaptation is good in a condition of nature, in developing country
like Fiji with increasing population and active technological trends, aided by the nature of
human socio-economic organization, it is less likely for adaptation to produce good results.
The following paragraph attempts to provide the reasons why a policy initiative needs to
focus more on mitigation when compared to adaption.

Part III
WHY CHOOSE MITIGATION

I will begin this paragraph by a famous quote by James Hansen (2009) “Adapt to species
loss, ice sheet disintegration, and increased intensity of floods, storms, droughts and fires?
Such talk is disingenuous and futile. For the sake of justice and equity, for our children,
grandchildren and nature we have no choice but to focus on mitigation”. Although Fiji has
few mitigation options because its emissions levels are very low to begin with for example
in 2005, per capita emissions of carbon dioxide (data for other GHGs are unavailable)
were 2.0 metric tons, 47% the global average and 10% the U.S. average. This is in part
due to Fiji producing 80% of its electricity needs through hydropower, with substantial
additional generating capacity available. However, Biomass consumption remains high,
including heavy reliance on firewood for domestic cooking. The GHG emission of the Pilot
mitigation reduction area- Lami is also increasing due to the building of newer industries
example the reconstruction of R.B Patel and the deforestation of large areas that was part
and parcel of the plan.

Firstly, the record shows that climate change is occurring much faster than previously
thought, and it will affect almost every aspect of life in every corner of Earth, and will last
far longer than we once believed (Archer 2009; Solomon et al. 2009). The trends in
analytical climate science suggest that effects will be much worse than once thought. The
implications for response strategies to climate change are conspicuous. For example, it is

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now obvious that impacts will change with higher levels of climate forcing, which is to say
that impacts will often occur faster than we can anticipate and will become obvious in
surprising ways. The question here is to what climatic conditions do we adapt and also
what will happen when the earlier adaptive measures become useless. Adaptive capacity of
human systems is generally low in small island states such as Fiji, and the vulnerability
high. For example, the low laying areas such as flood in Kiribati and Coastal Erosion in
Samoa, Combination of inundation and rise in water table Vanuatu has been partly solved
by adaption as people had to relocate to other parts of the land however, they also lost their
culture, identity, and more often one of their greatest possessions which is land.

Similarly, at every level of climate forcing the changes it will be difficult to predict, which
raises questions of where and when to interfere successfully in complex, nonlinear
ecological and social systems. There may be places in which no amount of adaptation will
work for long such as building sea wall for example the Denerau resort in Nadi. The sea
walls were built to protect the resort but it is slowly falling apart by erosion. This question
can also be on countries that are becoming progressively much hotter and dryer for
example New Orleans or South Florida, or much of the U.S. East Coast and perhaps one
day mostly uninhabitable. Thirdly, the choice between adaptation and mitigation is about
ethics and justice. A few wealthy communities in the developed world may be able to avoid
the worst for a time when compared to a small island such as Fiji. Also Small island
developing states threatened by sea level rise have fewer options to adapt. Sea defenses are
very costly for low-lying islands , and may do little to protect the tourism and fisheries that
sustain the local economy. Eventually the international community will have to find ways
to support alternative responses, including the managed resettlement of some people in
these states. This will bring many challenges, particularly for those people that must move.
There will be much greater pressures if unabated climate change leads to sea level rise that
threatens much larger populations in low-lying coastal areas. And, more forcefully, the
same can be said about future generations.

Fourthly, as the saying goes “stitch in time saves nine” kind of economic argument for
giving importance to mitigation. Stabilizing climate now will be expensive and filled with

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difficulties for certain, but it will be much cheaper and easier to do it sooner than it will be
later under much more economically difficult and ecologically disturbing conditions. If we
don’t act [soon], the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at
least 5% of global GDP each year, now and forever” (Stern 2007). Finally, efforts to adapt
to climate change will run against institutional barriers, established regulations, building
codes, and a human tendency to react to, rather than anticipate, events. There is, in
economist Robert Repetto’s words, “many reasons to doubt whether adaptive measures will
be timely and efficient, even in the U.S. where the capabilities exist” (Repetto 2008). The
effective adaptation to the changes to which we are already committed is complicated

and difficult. In Fiji the adaptive strategies are hardly taken seriously by most. In contrast,
measures pressing energy efficiency and renewable energy—as complicated as they are—
are much more straightforward and measurable, hence achievable. For example adapting
generator sizes, switching off lights, energy efficient light bulbs, and solar hot water. There
is also a huge potential for wind generated energy and solar power but lacks the capital,
knowledge and government incentives. Delayed investment in adaptation is particularly
critical for developing countries, where scientists predict the worst impacts will occur and
where the greatest vulnerabilities lie. Developing countries are calling for developed
countries to increase their commitment in this regard. At the same time, global
corporations, particularly those related to agribusiness, are increasingly focusing on
adaptation with the aim of protecting their business operations, for instance, through
insurance.

To conclude for developing countries, good adaptation and good development policy are
very strongly intertwined, and it is right that climate change should now become central to
national planning processes. But there are limits to adaptation and no matter what we do to
adapt, we cannot save some coastal cities, many species will be lost and ecosystems will be
distorted by changes in temperature and rainfall. Our best course is to reduce the scale and
scope of the problem with a sense of wartime necessity and that is by mitigation. Local
authorities could design new and pro-poor mitigation pilot initiatives and action plans that
are suited to their communities and help to strengthen capacity to support local climate
change strategies. The most appropriate and effective mitigation to the effects of climate
change on human will not necessitate new measures, but rather take the form of an
enhancement of existing initiatives. It would be right to sum up by saying that ‘prevention
is better than cure’ when we compare the core aims of adaption and mitigation. If we wait
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too long to prevent climate change we will, perhaps sooner than later, create conditions
beyond reach of any conceivable adaptive measures for the future generations to question.

REFERENCE

1. Hansen. J (2009) Baggage: the Case for Climate Mitigation

Conservation Biology, Volume 23, No. 4, 2009
2. Stern Nicholas H, (2007) The Economics of Climate Change from online source
http://books.google.com/books?id=UVmIrGGZgAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepa
ge&q&f=false
3. Repetto Robert, (2008) The Climate Crisis and the Adaptation Myth Working Paper
Number 13, Yale school of forestry & environmental studies.
4. UNFCCC’s Local Coping Strategies Database:
5. http://maindb.unfccc.int/public/adaptation
6. UNFCCC: www.unfccc.int
7. UNITAR: www.napa-pana.org
8. UNDP: http://napa.undp.org
9. UNDP: www.undp.org/gef/adaptation
10. UNDP Adaptation policy frameworks for climate change:
11. developing strategies, policies and measures:
12. www.undp.org/ gef/undp-gef_publications/undp-gef_publications.html
13. United States Agency for International Development
14. (USAID) Adaptation guidance manual: www.usaid.gov/