Building resilience to climate change in the Pacific islands I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me to this meeting and for the excellent agenda that they have put together for us this week. As the other presenters over the last two days have pointed out, the Pacific Islands are some of the most vulnerable to climate change. Building resilience to climate change in the Pacific islands Jillian Campbell, 1 November 2012

Interconnected systems As others have noted, both here this week and at the Rio+20 Summit, in this interconnected world that we live in, the environment cannot be viewed as being in its own separate sphere. This diagram from OECD illustrates this interconnectedness. In this diagram you will notice that the economy is not its own sphere – but in fact money is part of the human sphere. Many different factors impact our well-being, and although money can have an impact on well-being, especially in that it can help us secure basic services. It should not be viewed as the only factor.

Interconnected systems Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness Part of an old proverb states, “Money will buy a bed but not sleep; books but not brains; food but not appetite; finery but not beauty; a house but not a home; medicine but not health; luxuries but not culture; amusements but not happiness.”

Interconnected systems But although, I think it is self-evident that money is not the only thing that is important, interestingly so many of our policy decisions as are made based on money - GDP is probably the most used statistic for policy making and many national strategies are based almost solely on trying to increase GDP. Policy makers justify this because GDP is often seen as a proxy for well-being – people need financial security so that they can afford food, shelter, healthcare and the other prerequisite necessities for well-being: you have to be alive to be happy. We need to base policy decisions on what really matters to us, even if we have really high quality statistics if we base decisions on the wrong statistics then we will likely get the wrong outcome.

What is important? So what is important? I might say well-being or happiness, or in the words of Thomas Jefferson, it is “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But what factors contribute to people having a “better life” relates to a variety of factors including culture and individual preferences. A few weeks ago, I attended the OECD World Forum on measuring well-being, and experts from over the world presented different ideas of what well-being means in their national context. Although there were some differences in views, in general there were a large number of things consistent across countries, universal things that all people need:

What is important? they need their health; they need to feel safe and have power to make decisions; they need food and shelter; and they need to feel that there are opportunities and well-being for their children – although I have shown this last, many people, including myself, would say that this is the most important factor that impacts happiness. 

Global, regional and national realization that we should measure what matters. Sustainable Development Goals I believe that the consensus towards having a new set of Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, that was reached at the Rio+20 came out of a recognition for having goals and indicators that help us measure what matters. The Rio+20 Summit outcome document highlighted the importance of not just having agreed international goals, such as the SDGs, but also having high quality data at the national level that is used to make evidence-based decisions. In the words of the UK Secretary of Cabinet, “if you treasure it measure it”. And as the OECD diagram that I showed earlier demonstrated, not only do we value our natural environment but our natural environment can directly impacts the things we treasure. Environmental degradation and climate change threaten our health, our safety, our ability to meet basic needs, and most notably the future of the next generation is threatened. But yet, the environment is the least represented in the MDGs and in fact very little environmental data is used for policy making. National Minimum Development Indicators

SEEA Outside territory of reference Outside territory of reference Economy Instruments -Financial/Monetary -Taxes/subsidies -Financing -Resource rent -Permits Actors Enterprises Households Government Non-profit institutions Activities -Production -Consumption -Accumulation Analytical and Policy Frameworks -Productivity analysis -Natural resource management -Climate change -Green Growth/Green Economy Outside territory of reference Outside territory of reference Land/ Resources/ Ecosystem services Emissions/waste The need for better environmental data that could be used for decision making was noted at the 1st Rio Conference (UN Conference on Sustainable Development) in 199. At that meeting the need integrated environmental-economic information for policy was recognized and the participants called on the UN Statistics Division to develop an integrated accounting system. The System of Environmental Economic Accounting, or SEEA, was developed and subsequently approved as an international standard by member states at the 2012 Statistical Commission. The Rio +20 summit reinforced the importance of the SEEA as a more holistic way of capturing information on the economy and as a tool in developing green economic policies. SEEA is an internationally agreed standard for producing internationally comparable statistics which measures information on interactions between environment and economy; and stocks and changes in the stocks of environmental asset: including both terrestrial and marine. The SEEA uses an accounting framework consistent with the System of National Accounts (SNA) to maximize integration of environmental and economic statistics. Environment Envrironmental Assets (stocks) -Land -Water -Ecosystems -Soil -Etc. Territory of reference

Why SEEA? When information is presented separately it is hard to see how it fits together Why are evaluating these linkages important? When information is presented separately it is hard to see how it fits together.

Why SEEA? The SEEA provides politicians, economists, decision makers and others with a way to see the big picture in terms of the economy and environment. Thus indicators related to green economy, beyond GDP, and sustainable development can be captured and used to develop and monitor sustainable development, environmental degradation and climate change policies.

Improving the ability to measure in a holistic fashion is the key to understanding the complex relationships between human-activity and our environment. Improving the ability to measure the environment, social issues and the economy in a holistic fashion is the key to understanding the complex relationships between human-activity and our environment. Timely, high-quality data are imperative for developing and monitoring green economic growth and sustainable development. I do not see statistics and indicators as a nice addition to policy making, but as a necessary part of making good policies. This is especially relevant with respect to environmental degradation and climate change as without measurements we will have no way to understand their effects.

Thank you  Thank you