Abstract

Small-Island Developing States (SIDS) are expected to be disproportionally affected by climate change due to their social, economic and geographical characteristics – such as limited size, proneness to natural hazards, low-lying areas, and low adaptive capacity. In recent years various vulnerability assessments of national fisheries to potential climate change impacts have been carried out. These studies (see e.g. Allison et al., 2009 and Hughes et al., 2012), how-ever, scarcely include SIDS despite the particular importance of fisheries in these countries. This study has replicated, with slightly modified methods, the 2009 vulnerability assessment by Allison et al. (2009) with most recent data and has broadened the analysis to include nearly all coastal states in the world including all, except one, Small-Island De-veloping States. This study assesses the outcome and relevance of this vulnerability assessment for SIDS and discuss-es a possible new framework integrating the advances in the field of national level vulnerability studies that have been made since the previous assessment.

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