The Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo and his Climate Change and the Environment Minister, Dr Maina Talia, are at COP29 to advocate for a more just climate finance system for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
Starting this week, COP29, billed as a ‘Finance COP’, intends to set the future direction of international climate finance and to facilitate the negotiations of a new financial pledge by rich countries to support climate initiatives in poorer ones.
The Government of Tuvalu is clear that the new pledge, known as the New Collective Qualifying Goal, should be significantly higher than the previous 2009 goal of US$100 billion per year.
Throughout the COP the Prime Minister and his team will highlight that the new climate finance arrangements must also address loss and damage and include the costs of mitigation and adaption, be new and additional to existing development finance and be quick and easy to access, with a simplified application and disbursement process.
Reflecting on the justness of any new climate finance arrangements, Prime Minister Teo said: “A situation globally caused must also have a globally just and equitable solution, with the special needs and circumstances of Small Island States and Least Developed Countries who are suffering the worst impacts of climate change fully recognised.”
So far at COP, Prime Minister Teo has spoken at a Green Climate Fund side event where he outlined the urgency of climate funding reform. He has also co-hosted two hi-level events.
The first shone a light on climate mobility and how positive adaptation journeys are only possible when Government’s can plan for mobility, and when people have ownership in decisions about their future. The second covered sea-level rise impacts and will progress efforts to shape an ambitious UN General Assembly Declaration on sea-level rise in September 2026.
All these events provide Tuvalu with the opportunity to raise awareness of the specific challenges SIDS like Tuvalu are forced to face as global temperatures increase and rising sea levels threaten their existence.
