Hawaii Policy Research Series · Island Security Policy Institute · 2026
Climate change compounds every island emergency management vulnerability simultaneously — increasing wildfire risk under drought conditions, intensifying hurricane tracks, accelerating sea level rise affecting evacuation routes, and disrupting the maritime supply chains that island communities depend on.
Documents the specific ways climate change compounds existing island emergency management vulnerabilities in Hawaii and provides a climate-integrated emergency management framework replacing sequential planning with simultaneous compound-risk planning. This research is produced under the ISPI Research Methodology Guide v4.0 — five pillars: government agency sources, regional organizations, OSINT/Bellingcat two-source verification, the ISPI Global Expert Panel of 78 members across 14 disciplines, and AI synthesis under practitioner review. All ISPI research is free under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
The Lahaina wildfire occurred under the specific combination of drought conditions and high winds that climate models project will increase in frequency across Hawaii — it was a climate-compounded emergency, not an isolated weather event
Sea level rise threatens evacuation routes in coastal communities across all major Hawaii islands — infrastructure planning must account for this as a 20-year emergency management variable
Climate disruption to Pacific maritime supply chains creates a compound vulnerability: emergency events occur at higher frequency and severity precisely when supply chains are most disrupted
Climate change is the defining threat multiplier for SIDS worldwide. The Samoa Pathway explicitly identifies climate security as a priority. ISPI's Hawaii-based research provides a practitioner framework applicable across all SIDS emergency management contexts.
Pulley, Warren. "Climate Resilience and Emergency Response in Hawaii." Island Security Policy Institute, 2026. https://ispiglobal.com/papers-landing/hi08-climate-resilience.html