Sharing Pacific Perspectives on Climate Change

Sharing Pacific Perspectives on Climate Change & Disaster Risk Finance

26 June 2019

Sigatoka, Fiji - Climate change and disaster risk finance is crucial to addressing climate change, the greatest single threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the Pacific. As such, a gathering on climate change and disaster risk finance opened today in Sigatoka, Fiji bringing together over 70 Pacific island delegates and partners.

The gathering provides a platform for improving knowledge and awareness of climate change and disaster risk finance and is an opportunity to strengthen learnings and build partnerships between the critical players necessary to implement climate and disaster risk initiatives within Pacific Island nations.

Isoa Talemaibua, Fiji’s Head of Budget and Planning from the Ministry of Economy emphasised Pacific Island countries must take ownership and drive decision making on climate change and disaster risk financing initiatives. He also emphasised the need to include all partners including civil society and the private sector in the decision making process.

“Financing remains a critical and an integral component of implementation. Tackling the impacts of climate change requires strong, genuine and an integrated partnership of all stakeholders from community level, private sector, non-government organisations, civil society as well as regional and international development partners,” he said.

This is the second Regional Climate Change and Disaster Risk Finance Meeting which will hear from key speakers and participants on their lessons learned and modalities used to access financing whilst exploring different approaches working in the Pacific.

This includes sharing of experiences on direct and indirect access to climate change and disaster risk finance; challenges and opportunities that exist; the broader enabling environment such Public Financial Management (PFM) and capacity and skills enhancement to support access and management of climate and disaster risk finance; and public- private partnerships to deliver climate change and disaster risk finance.

By the end of the meeting, participants are expected to have an understanding of the opportunities and challenges of accessing and managing climate change and disaster risk finance and how different funding options can be maximised to strengthen the Pacific’s response to climate change and disaster resilience.

The Regional Climate and Disaster Risk Finance meetings run from 26-27 June preceeded by a Media Masterclass and Regional Steering Committee held yesterday in Sigatoka.

Government officials from The Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Vanuatu are in attendance.

The Regional Climate Finance meeting is jointly organised by the Pacific Community (SPC) through its Institutional Strengthening for Pacific Island countries to Adapat to Climate Change (ISAAC) project, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Griffith University, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia.

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