Regional: Support to Climate Resilient Investment Pathways in the Pacific

Energy / Energy sector development and institutional reform

Public sector management / Social protection initiatives

Transport / Transport policies and institutional development

The knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) will support the efforts of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in scaling up its investment in climate change adaptation in all 14 Pacific developing member countries (DMCs). It will do so by building on past and ongoing ADB efforts in the Pacific. These efforts include climate-proofing infrastructure investments; supporting the development of small-value renewable energy projects for mitigating emissions; designing water sector adaptation investments; facilitating greater flows of climate finance into the region; providing a range of financial products for disaster and emergency assistance, from initial disaster response to recovery and reconstruction; and supporting policy and capacity development interventions to reduce climate change and disaster risks

Recent reviews of ADB's current climate risk assessment system have identified a need to shift ADB support further upstream to enable a more strategic analysis of climate risks and climate programming at the country, thematic, and sector levels. To date, the system has primarily focused on project-specific support, which is still necessary but needs to take on a more holistic approach to better help the DMCs respond to growing climate threats.

ADB and its Pacific DMCs need an upstream and multifaceted approach for several reasons, including: (i) the multitude of climate change threats facing Pacific countries, including rising sea levels and associated coastal inundation and erosion, more intense cyclones and extreme rainfall events, longer droughts, and weakened marine ecosystems from bleaching and acidification;_(ii) the immediacy of the risks, including the lack of fresh water in low-lying communities, with sea incursions polluting once-reliable water sources; (iii) recent evidence suggesting that sea level rise is accelerating faster than previous projections, because of rapid melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets; (iv) the multifaceted impacts of climate change, including economic and financial impacts (sovereign credit profiles are already being influenced by climate extremes, and markets are starting to price-in future climate change); (v) the wide-ranging, immediate, and exacerbating impacts of climate change that accentuate existing vulnerabilities in Pacific countries because of their small size, isolation, narrow economic bases, limited resources, and dependence on trade; and (vi) the small likelihood that Pacific DMCs on their own will address planned adaptation, because many barriers (including information, economic, financial and investment barriers) make it difficult to plan and implement adaptation actions; thus, barrier removal provides a strong justification for ADB to support DMCs in strategic climate resilience planning.

Resilience to climate change impacts and associated risks in Pacific DMCs is improved across built infrastructure, ecosystems and communities

Systemic resilient adaptation pathways in the Pacific increased

Access to climate change information improved for strategic decision-making

Planning and policy development processes enhanced to better adapt to a changing climate

Projects and programs supported, with focus on upstream inputs and partnership building