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Climate change is emerging as the main driver of current and future climaterelated risks for small islands. These risks include sea level rise, stronger tropical cyclones, and changing rainfall patterns. While there is now high confidence in the scientific community that the present change in climate is anthropogenic in nature compared to the Earth's geologic history of natural variability, there is a need for more detailed evaluations of the relationships between humans and the climate. As a human activity affected by climate change, tourism is in need of such analyses since current positivist analytical tools are inadequate for evaluating the complexity of such interactions. This paper reviews the literature, scientific frameworks, and methodological epistemologies used to analyse human community relationships to natural environments and their applicability in small island tourism environments that are impacted by climate change in the Philippines. Political ecology emerges as a potent and appropriate framework since climate change adaptation planning processes for island tourism are inherently political. The paper advances the use of political ecology for climate change adaptation to grapple with the equally complex phenomena of island tourism urbanisation and climate change, thereby contributing to the discourse in three research areas.

This research paper presents a case study of the island of Boracay, Philippines, utilising a political ecology approach to climate change adaptation. The research finds that the island's political ecology, especially the relationships among stakeholders, is strained. This creates challenges for various urban planning processes that require good working relationships. Climate change is expected to highlight these divisions as interactions among stakeholders (fulfilling zoning ordinance obligations, climate change adaptation-compliant land use plans, etc.) are dependent on good stakeholder relations. Stakeholders realise that climate change is real and that sea level rise is already challenging existing zoning ordinances on urban beach development. However, this realisation must be integrated into political decision-making processes involving tourism stakeholders. The research also shows that the political ecology approach and methodology is applicable to studying the dynamics of climate change adaptation and tourism urbanisation on small islands.

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