ABSTRACT
In the face of dangerous climate change effects in the South Pacific and the Caribbean innovation has been at the forefront of community-based resilience, vulnerability and adaptation initiatives over this past century or more. This Chapter will review the important underpinnings of societal level and stakeholder impacts of sustainable innovating as it relates to climate change in small island developing states (SIDS). Urban populations living in coastal or inland cities are distinguished from regions in the sense that they possess and steadily provide various functions, which refer to those in the socioeconomic realm, in addition to physical functions. This article will review the literature on the concept of vulnerability, its assessment and measurement in the context of urban environments; the findings should be discussed in connection with urban climate resilience. This Chapter will also emphasize shifts towards learning, innovation and the role knowledge can play in this. Both “pro-poor adaptation strategies” as “green growth” strategies can exemplify these trends. An important concept within sustainable development and climate resilience of urban populations is vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change, exacerbated much more prominently and often felt and experienced profoundly across and in all geographic scales in the South Pacific.
