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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Climate change and natural hazards pose serious threats to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) over the short, medium, and long terms. RMI is already one of the most vulnerable nations in the world to natural hazards, including tropical storms, droughts, and flooding. Climate change has the potential to raise the frequency and intensity of these threats and entails new threats, particularly in the form of sea level rise. With most land only minimally above sea level, rising waters threaten to make numerous parts of the country uninhabitable by 2050.
Climate change is expected to affect the country’s coastal resources through increased ocean acidification, sea level rise, and coral bleaching. In its National Strategic Plan 2020-2030, RMI recognizes the threat to its people that sea level rise poses. It frankly confronts the reality that RMI faces a stark choice: relocate or find adaptation options. The country is considering whether it is possible or desirable to relocate all citizens or whether it should focus on accelerating disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) processes. RMI’s people and government leaders are attempting to understand risks atoll by atoll to allow adaptation measures to be established with local atoll and village groups.
The current disaster management approach is arranged in accordance with the 2019 National Disaster Risk Management Arrangement (NDRMA) and eight-cluster national coordination structure. The National Disaster Committee (NDC) oversees policy and strategy and reports to the President, while the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) is primarily responsible for disaster management activities. As one of several small Pacific Island states affected by climate change, RMI has participated in regional frameworks and strategies for climate security, and, like others in the region, RMI approaches the issues of climate change, DRR, and disaster management in an integrated manner.
The Compact of Free Association (COFA) is an agreement governing the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and RMI. It confers some measure of autonomy to RMI in exchange for a U.S. defense commitment, significant economic assistance, and other benefits. The current COFA agreement is being renegotiated as of preparation of this handbook ahead of the COFA’s expiry. While the bilateral relationship is mostly positive, the issue of compensation for the 1946-1958 nuclear testing program is one source of disagreement. Beyond this negotiation, agencies and communities of RMI and the U.S. continue to work together. The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA) takes the lead in providing humanitarian assistance from the U.S. government to RMI in the event of a disaster. Moreover, Marshall Islanders have visa-free access to live, work, and study in the U.S. through the COFA.
The effects of environmental loss and economic stagnation as well as a search for jobs, education, and health care have seen many Marshallese depart the islands in the first two decades of the 21st century. The 2021 national census showed only 39,262 people in the country, a 26% drop over 2011 numbers.1 Emigration – mostly to the U.S. – is the most significant driver of the decrease.
RMI’s economy is small with a small labor force. The annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is only US$221 million,2 and contributions to GDP are approximately 44% from the public sector with remittances and COFA-related grants and budgetary aid also making up a large percentage. In practice, the economy combines a small subsistence agriculture sector in the outer islands with a modest urban sector in Majuro and Kwajalein. The RMI government is the country’s largest employer, and the U.S. Army Garrison – Kwajalein Atoll (USAG-KA) is the second largest employer.