Team Fiji has achieved a major breakthrough at the Seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7), by successfully securing an agreement on their resolution, “Accelerating Global Action to Promote the Climate Resilience of Coral Reefs.”
This is the first of 17 resolutions under negotiation to be cleared by Member States, which signals global recognition of Fiji’s leadership on ocean and climate action.
Negotiations were intense and technical, with delegates working around the clock for the last week.
Fiji’s technical team led by the Permanent Secretary for Environment and the Director of Environment navigated complex scientific, environmental and geopolitical issues to bring all countries on board. The final negotiation session concluded at 1am in the morning, with consensus reached on the full text.
With two days remaining before UNEA-7 concludes, negotiations on the remaining resolutions continue in full force.
Fiji extends its sincere appreciation to all countries and partners for their constructive engagement, flexibility, and support.
This early success underscores Fiji’s leadership in multilateral environmental diplomacy and reaffirms our commitment to protecting the world’s coral reefs and the communities that depend on them.
Meanwhile, Fiji has called for the establishment of a One Ocean Finance Facility, warning that the world cannot continue protecting the ocean with a financial system that remains “fragmented and under-resourced.”
Speaking at the High-Level Ministerial on One Ocean Finance at UNEA-7, the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Mosese Bulitavu, said the ocean economy is being pushed to the brink while receiving less than one percent of global climate finance.
“A global finance system that fails the ocean fails Small Island Developing States,” the Minister said, noting that the ocean is central to climate stability, food security and global prosperity, yet remains significantly underfunded.
Fiji urged countries and partners to rally behind a unified One Ocean Finance Facility that can mobilise capital at scale and direct it to the communities and ecosystems that need it most.
The Minister outlined three priorities:
*direct access for SIDS and coastal LDCs
*financing the full life cycle of ocean action—from marine spatial planning to blue-carbon protection
*a clear global roadmap ahead of UNOC4, with shared principles and measurable targets.
Highlighting Fiji’s own progress through its Blue Economy Framework, the Minister stressed that national ambition cannot compensate for glaring global finance gaps.
“We are not short of commitments. We are short of capital,” he said. “The One Ocean Finance Facility is our chance to finally finance the ocean at the scale the ocean has always financed us,” said Bulitavu.
