Climate risk management in Coastal LDCs and SIDS: Assessment of adaptation potentials with CLIMADA

Fifty-four nations across the globe are designated as coastal Least Developed Countries (LDCs) or Small Island Developing States (SIDS). All are extremely vulnerable to the impacts and risks of climate change in general, and ocean and coastal-related climate change in particular. Both coastal LDCs (‘low-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development’) and SIDS, a distinct group of island developing countries, are particularly vulnerable to coastal and ocean-based climate change because of the large proportions of people, assets, and infrastructure located in their coastal zones. It is vitally important to understand the negative impacts of climate change, the potential to avert, minimise and address such impacts and the losses and damages that may nevertheless occur through climate mitigation and risk management approaches. This is particularly the case for coastal LDCs and SIDS, which have developing economies, limited financial buffers, and a heavy dependence on biological ecosystems that will be severely negatively impacted by climate change.