It's About Managing Risk: The overlap between CCA and DRR in the Pacific

There are a lot of acronyms out there. Sometimes they can be a bit confusing - in the world of development two particular acronyms abound: CCA and DRR. Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Globally, they overlap in areas and there is not enough cooperation between practitioners in the two fields to make them interventions more efficient and effective. In the Pacific, however, they are practically the same thing. Particularly because climate change is by definition a slow onset disaster.

This was expressed best by Robert Glasser, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction: ‘If you look back over the last couple of decades, 90% of the major disasters have been hydro-meteorological disasters; basically, those disasters that are increasing in frequency and severity as a result of climate change. In the Pacific, disaster risk is, for the most part, about increased storms and sea level rise, which for some countries is really a matter of their survival.’

While CCA is fundamentally about adapting to and managing the risks associated to exposure to climate change, in the Pacific, where climate change is a disaster, it is effectively part of the DRR framework for action. Sadly, though, we often think about the two concepts as either or. Lessons from other countries such as Indonesia, show that the politicization of development agendas can mean a prioritization of one issue over another, even if they are not mutually exclusive and are equally critical to risk management.

Inevitably, CCA and DRR will be dealt with individually at the policy level. But at the community level - the action level - they can and should be an integrated concept. We can reduce disaster risk by undertaking small but essential adaptations such as protecting fuel and water supplies (necessary to deal with climate change-related droughts and non-climate disasters such as earthquakes) and taking care of mangroves (which will protect against sea-level rise and storm surge, and safeguard inshore fish stocks).

In the Pacific, it doesn’t matter what you call it, in practice it’s about managing risk and increasing resilience to ever-present natural hazards be they climate-induced or the result of shifting tectonic plates. And the most important thing to understand is that it is a process of continual action - there is no end date, no matter that policies and frameworks are time-bound. It’s about identifying what needs to be done, taking action based on the knowledge you have, practices which have defied the ages and seeking assistance through new ideas when needed. Then you learn from them, adjust and repeat as necessary.

Fortunately, there is no acronym for that.