It is widely recognized that the world‘s poorest countries will bear the brunt of escalating greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through reduced food and water availability, and increasing frequency and severity of extreme events.

This report focuses specifically on the likely impact of climate change on the trade and competitiveness of the fisheries sector in small developing Commonwealth States and thus contributes to bringing the fisheries sector into a more central role in policy discussion on climate change. An assessment of the climatic change implications on the trade and competitiveness of the fisheries requires consideration first of the climatic-fisheries impact pathways i.e. physical and chemical changes in oceans, lakes and rivers resulting from climate change, then of how such changes are likely to effect fish and ecosystems, and finally how these changes will impact on the trade and competitiveness of the fisheries sector particularly fishers/fish farmers, communities and national economies.