Republic of Fiji National Adaptation Plan

The Republic of Fiji National Adaptation Plan (2018) is a strategic framework designed to transition the country toward a climate-resilient development pathway. It identifies 160 prioritised adaptation measures across ten components: five systemic (climate information, horizontal integration, vertical integration, awareness, and resource mobilisation) and five sectoral (food security, health, human settlements, infrastructure, and biodiversity). The plan emphasizes a 'theory of change' that combines the removal of adaptation barriers with the mitigation of sectoral risks, grounded in ecosystem-based and gender- and human rights-based approaches. Key goals include mainstreaming climate risk into all levels of government decision-making, improving the availability of high-resolution climate data, and enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure and food systems to combat hazards such as tropical cyclones, sea-level rise, and flooding.

• Fiji's climate is characterized by significant warming, with mean air temperature increasing by 0.90°C over the last half century, and sea levels rising by 4.7mm per year between 1993 and 2015.
• Tropical cyclones are becoming more severe, as evidenced by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016, which caused US$0.9 billion in loss and damage, representing approximately 33 percent of Fiji's national GDP.
• The NAP identifies 160 prioritised adaptation measures to be implemented over five years, selected based on stakeholder consensus rather than cost-benefit analysis due to the difficulty of monetising climate impacts.
• Systemic priorities focus on five areas to enable a paradigm shift: climate information services, horizontal integration (national mainstreaming), vertical integration (sub-national mainstreaming), climate change awareness, and resource mobilisation.
• Food and nutrition security is threatened by sea level rise, salinity intrusion, and soil erosion, with staple crops like rice, taro, and yams expected to face moderate to high negative impacts by 2050.
• Climate change is projected to increase the risk of communicable diseases, with 45 percent of Viti Levu’s population projected to be at high to extreme risk of dengue fever outbreaks by 2100 under the worst-case scenario.
• Human settlements are highly vulnerable, with approximately 90 percent of the population living in coastal areas, and a significant increase in informal settlements described as 'vulnerability hot spots'.
• Infrastructure requires the most investment of all sectors to become climate resilient, with an estimated FJD 9 billion needed over the next ten years to climate-proof assets.
• Biodiversity and natural environments, particularly coral reefs, face biological adaptation limits; ocean warming and acidification may cause irreversible deterioration regardless of mitigation efforts to 1.5°C or 2°C.
• The plan identifies critical adaptation barriers, including a lack of high-resolution elevation data and flood maps for most population centres, and fragmented development planning that hinders the integration of climate actions.
• The NAP adopts a gender- and human rights-based approach, recognizing that climate change is not gender neutral and that low-income and disadvantaged groups must be treated as 'active agents of change'.
• Resource mobilisation efforts aim to improve financial inclusion in rural areas and isolated islands to reduce vulnerability and support autonomous adaptation by households and the private sector.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (2018). Republic of Fiji National Adaptation Plan. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fiji-country-report-V7.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Republic of Fiji National Adaptation Plan. 2018. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fiji-country-report-V7.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Republic of Fiji National Adaptation Plan |date=2018 |url=https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fiji-country-report-V7.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopment2018republic, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Republic of Fiji National Adaptation Plan}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2018}, url = {https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/fiji-country-report-V7.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }