Climate change2 is one of the most pressing issues for the Pacific Island countries (PICs).
The impacts of climate variability and extreme events (cyclones, floods, droughts, sea
level rise, and other natural disasters) are rapidly pushing people beyond their coping
range. The already strained economies are being drained trying to keep up with the
impacts of these changes on livelihoods. In the 1990s alone, the Pacific Island region
bore up to $U.S.1 billion costs related to climate extremes (Campbell, 1999; Feresi et al.,
2000), and the costs are expected to rise even further with a rise in the frequency and
intensity of extreme events.