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Conclusions: Small-island developing economies are resource dependent and livelihoods have adapted to cope with the variability and extremes of the present day climate system. Climate change should be of immediate concern to the UK Overseas Territories and will increase in importance over coming decades. Climate change will bring changes that will affect the environmental services on which the UK OT societies depend and so exacerbate current vulnerability. More
severe extreme events, particularly droughts and more intense storms will lead to damage to the natural, physical, human and social capital of the communities. Thus, the priority for the long-term survival and sustainability of human populations is to strengthen the basis and diversity of livelihoods in the UK OTs, through effective information dissemination, by informing and strengthening government decision-making and by encouraging and facilitating community leadership in developing adaptation strategies and management plans. Current activities in the UK OTs and
other small island states will be only slightly affected by future climate change but changes over the next decades will have profound impacts on UK OT societies. In view of this and the current lack of local information and understanding, effective use of funds will require more focus on community and government level information dissemination, training
and adaptation planning, feeding up to inform regional initiatives.