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The Higher Ground Initiative: Needs

from Higher Ground Initiative: Purpose + Need

from Higher Ground Initiative: Purpose + Need, page 61

Looking Ahead

In order to deliver on all aspects of the fundamental Purpose of the Higher Ground Initiative, the following Needs must be adequately and intentionally addressed through the implementation of a master plan for a resilient and secure future for Nauru. Drawing on the analysis and corresponding guidance, as outlined in the National Sustainable Development Strategy 2019-2030 (NSDS) and further detailed in the Republic of Nauru Framework for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction (RONAdapt), the following reflects the specific ways in which the Vision of the Higher Ground Initiative will respond to the unique context of Nauru and the distinct yet interrelated challenges that the island nation currently faces.

To fully realize the Vision of the Higher Ground Initiative, Nauru must:

Confront the need to provide a more adaptive environment that can better serve the people of Nauru and the quality of life on the island. Implementation of the master plan must provide the opportunity to expand local food production, restore ecological and natural island systems, update to renewable and sustainable utilities and infrastructure, expand social and economic opportunity for all Nauruans, improve public health and increase access to public recreation, and establish a new, innovative, and regenerative approach to urban development for the Pacific region, one that appropriately reflects community as it is defined by Nauruans.

Confront the need to develop a domestic economy and infrastructure that is resilient in the face of increasingly detrimental climate impacts. The island must develop an island-wide master plan and corresponding implementation and development approach that is responsive to the explicit threat of sea inundation to existing coastal development and investments, as well as the related threat of saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers. Likewise, the vision for HGI must be integrative and supportive of the broader social, economic, and ecological policies of Nauru, aligning national sustainable development and environmental priorities with the planning activities and implementation strategies of the master plan.

Confront the need to build independence from current reliance on foreign goods, services, resources, and funding sources. Because Nauru currently holds a scarcity of fertile agricultural land and fresh water resources, the island is susceptible to the unreliability of global shipping and trade networks. As a result, basic food and energy resources are currently reliant on foreign imports and the international systems by which those imports eventually reach Nauru. In order to increase national resilience and security in the face of global uncertainties, the vision of HGI must provide the means for the systems that will support these fundamental needs of Nauruans to be developed and maintained on the island, not dependent on external sources.

Confront the need to move away from the colonial legacy of phosphate mining, and the damage that it has done not only ecologically and environmentally, but socially and economically as well. Though mitigated by the 1968 Nauruan independence-led recovery of mining operations and improved standard of living resulting from the state-owned RONPHOS corporation, the impact of the exportation of the mineral wealth of the island has left compounding and lasting burdens which have now become central to the pillars that HGI has been built upon and that the master plan must be responsive to. What the mining operations have left behind is the ground on which the sustainable future of Nauru will be built.

Confront the need to create a new model of urban development for the Pacific and for small island developing nations similar to Nauru, one which responds to the specific vulnerabilities and also unique opportunities present in many peer nation states. This urbanism must strengthen the capacity of individuals, institutions, and communities toward a shared resiliency against the uncertainties that the island may face in the decades to come. Likewise, it must celebrate the cultural heritage of Nauru, as it elevates the deep and meaningful relationship that Nauruans hold to the land. At the same time, this development strategy must represent the best examples of genuinely sustainable building practice, providing deliberately simple and profoundly reliable buildings that will meet the housing, enterprise, service, and recreational needs of every member of the community.

Confront the need to leverage untapped natural resources, in order to produce buildings and spaces that are inherently responsive to, rather than operationally at odds with, the natural conditions in Nauru. New construction must be capable of providing passive cooling and lighting, capturing the movement of prevailing winds and increasing availability of natural lighting throughout structures, thereby reducing overall energy load demands. Utilization of more efficient means of appliance and technology provision, water management, energy production, utility delivery, waste management, public service provision, and mobility options must be embedded into new development.

Confront the need for affordable climate finance necessary for the adaptation that all nations must pursue in order to protect their futures, starting with the disparately impacted nation-states of which Nauru is a key example. Identifying adequate funding for a transformational project of the scale of HGI will not be possible without the substantial engagement and contribution of supportive international funding partners who are appreciative of the economic constraints that Nauru faces and committed to supporting the small developing island nation in its pursuit of climate-based adaptation through managed migration. In addition, Nauru must gain access to grant-based resources as well as technical and capacity building support from international partners, in order to fully realize the vision documented in the master plan.

Confront the need to provide a Governmentwide response to resiliency that addresses the intersectionality of challenges and delivers coproduction of results. Outcomes of the vision for HGI must consistently deliver co-benefits, or added beneficial outcomes above and beyond the direct mitigation of climate impacts, in the policies and measures undertaken as a part of this initiative, in service to the limited resources that Nauru has access to. Strategies for implementation of this master plan must provide for a triple bottom line of benefit to social, environmental, and financial outcomes, ensuring a sustainable national economy invulnerable to changing political leadership and unsusceptible to opportunistic endeavors, supporting the island for generations to come. Improved living standards must be delivered through the economic and educational benefits of Nauruan participation in the skill-building and new enterprise and industry development that the implementation of the initiative will bring.

Confront the need to leverage untapped human resources, in order to provide an inclusive development strategy that empowers every Nauruan regardless of their age, gender, marital status, health, mobility, wealth, housing status, religion, or education to benefit from this generational island-wide undertaking. In developing the vision for HGI, the engagement of all Nauruans must be incorporated, in order to ensure that the well-being of every member of the community is taken into consideration and fully integrated into the planning and prioritysetting process. In its strategy for implementation of the master plan for HGI, the Government of Nauru must consider the holistic nature of the vulnerabilities of Nauruans, seeking to utilize the opportunities for skill-building and capacitydevelopment that the new industries, businesses, technologies, and knowledge of this initiative can provide to the community.

Confront the need to continue and expand the role of the island nation as an international leader, based on its national effort to address the impacts of global climate change. While the Higher Ground Initiative is indeed incredibly ambitious, it is also deeply necessary if Nauru is to survive both the known and still unknown impacts that the global climate crises will bring its way. The whole of Government has demonstrated, over the course of the development of this master plan, that they are committed to the action that this initiative represents, and will be integrating across sectors in order to align their mandates with the recommendations embedded in the master plan and its corresponding policy recommendations. With this initiative, Nauru has and will continue to demonstrate the urgency and essentiality of the obligation that every nation state, including the smallest and most geographically remote, must have if the global community is to reverse the damage that our past and present harmful actions have incurred.