Award winning Pacific journalist Sera Sefeti is at COP29. In a series of Pacific State of Play Conversations screening on Pasifika TV, she shares some questions in talanoa mode with Pacific officials in Baku.
She met with Finau Soqo, General Manager for the Pacific Resilience Facility. Below are the key threads of their QnA talanoa, which you can also view at the Pasifika TV Channel on YouTube.
Q: Tell us a little bit about the Pacific Resilience Facility.
FS: The PRF is a first Pacific-led, owned and managed regional climate financing facility for communities. At the moment, it’s transitioning under the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. It’s a Pacific leader -led climate financing initiative, and we’re here at the COP29 in Azerbaijan to basically elevate the global profile of the PRF and also advocate for funding the PRF’s capitalization in order to start granting to Pacific communities who are at the very front line of climate change.
Q: So, COP 29 this year has been dubbed the as the Finance COP and it’s definitely linked to financing in terms of adaptation, mitigation, or any of the thematic areas. How important is this COP for you?
FS: It’s a critical COP because the PRF has been mentioned in the COP29 text for the very first time. So, this is a critical milestone, and we just want to thank all the climate negotiators, negotiating on behalf of the Pacific and for the PRF. So, COP29 will be about advancing what we’ve achieved in COP 28 given that the US$100 billion climate goal ends at end of December 2024 and negotiations are now underway for the new collective quantified goal. So, it is important to ensure that the PRF is featured in those goals in some shape or form, in terms of the climate financing volume and also the duration of that financing. if we can access financing sustainably for the PRF over the next few years, it will mean that we can ensure that the PRF meets its capitalization target of USD$500 million by first of January 2026. Pledges for the PRF to date have raised about 150 million and that has come from Saudi Arabia, China, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, and including the government of Nauru, and it’s a fantastic testimony of Pacific ownership in the PRF as well. And one of the most important things that we’re focusing on now is how do we achieve the 100 million that we need in order to get to the first $250 million next year, and we’ll fundraise the next US$250 million in order to reach the US$500 million goal.
Q: With all this big money, big dollars being discussed or pledges and all that– for a person who doesn’t understand what PRF stands for, what does it mean to them? How does this actually translate to the community? What is the purpose of the PRF? Why was it created?
FS: PRF was really created for communities, against small projects that communities need, that are often under-served by bigger global climate finance funds. One of the most special things about the PRF is that it’s ours. It belongs to the Pacific. It’s co designed by the Pacific. All 18 members of the Pacific Island Forum are engaged in the formulation of how we’re going to establish it, and we are going to establish it in 2025. What does it mean for communities? It means that once we receive the pledges, we’ll invest the pledges and from the income that we make, we will then distribute that to the communities in all the member countries, so that we can, build resilience. If it’s a sea wall that communities need, or they need to strengthen the roof of a community hall that will be, you know, the evacuation centre in the event of a disaster, if there’s a need for, you know, any kind of adaptation, that’s needed by communities, that’s really what the PRF is there for.
And you know, it’s really right across the Pacific. We’re going to try and demonstrate how important the PRF is and how much impact that it can have for Pacific communities, — not only in low lying home countries, but also in the larger countries, where remote communities are also affected by climate change in different kinds of ways, like soil erosion for communities that are living beside rivers– it is the same situation that we’re having with communities that are living just on the shoreline where it’s about coastal inundation. So because the Pacific is broad, we are very diverse, it’s important that that we tailor our climate financing solutions to the needs of the communities that we serve, and that’s what’s special about the PRF, and that it’s for us, by us, and it’s owned by the Pacific, and so that’s something that’s very special about it.
Q: So, for this COP what do you want from the global leaders who are here?
FS: That’s a great question. What I’d like from the global leaders for this group is to acknowledge that 1.5 degrees to stay alive is real. The warmer it gets, the more existential it gets for us and therefore the need for the PRF will become even more important. So, the initial capitalization target for the PRF is 500 million. We’ve raised 150 million so far. We’re looking to raise another 250 million by first of January 2026, what I’d really like from this call for the PRF is the acknowledgement that 500 million is not enough. Pacific Leaders have called for a US$1.5 billion-dollar long term target for a 1.5-degree world. And even that’s not enough. There was a UN study done that costed coastal adaptation needs alone at about 230m dollars a year. In order for the PRF to generate that kind of revenue, it would have to be a US$4 billion fund so what I’d like from the global leaders is to ensure that the financing allocation to the Pacific and Small Island States is meaningful enough to actually make a dent on resilience, and for the PRF what we’re looking for is a US$1.5. billion, long term target, and an immediate focus on US$500 million that we need to raise by the first of January 2026.
