Projecting the future of Pacific ports, shipping and maritime supply chains: Evolving climate change risk management into risk opportunities

Although over 90% of Earth’s trade is seaborne; dependent on global maritime connections of seaports, vessels, economic hinterlands and interconnecting supply chains, its stakeholders from resource extractor and producer to ports, shipping, logistics and government, often ignore the most significant risk threatening commercial viability, ecosystem resistance and supply chain survival. Increasing vulnerability to higher temperatures, sea level rise, currents, changes in wind velocity, species migration, precipitation and extreme events including storms, hurricanes, tsunamis, droughts, floods, landslides, gales and heatwaves presents uncertainty. In response, this paper considering stakeholders, publishers and academia’ failure to adequately recognise, calculate, respond, monitor and adapt risk management to climate change, defines climateproofing for maritime supply chains, evaluating existing adaptation solutions. It provides historic disaster data for a Cook Islands maritime supply chain to illustrate increasing climate change risks. It summarises results in ‘climateproofing’ global supply chains, as part of the first PHD thesis to establish projected risks, economic impact costs, constraints and adaptation strategies across an entire Pacific maritime supply chain for a commodity. This enables stakeholders and researchers to envision climate change disruptive risks can be transformed into risk opportunities, through Pacific climateproofing, adaptation strategies including ecological capital, to facilitate the future quality, productivity and survival of world trade.