Pacific leaders are concerned with the hypocrisy of the Pacific Islands Forum’s development partners.
Fiji’s deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad and Pacific Islands Forum Chair Mark Brown shared these sentiments at a public seminar during the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in Suva.
Prasad said the words of commitment and the actions of these so-called partners are not corroborated well.
He said these inefficiencies can also be seen in how financial institutions operate.
“They say they are with us on our regional threats but there’s a disconnect between this and the resources they offer on the table. Why is there a disconnect between what multilateral banks and global funds say and what they do? They know too well that the region’s adaptation to climate change cannot be and must not be financed or cannot be continued to be financed by soft loans or even hard.”
A representative from the V-20 Secretariat present during the seminar has called for a strong Pacific voice to direct funding to address climate financing challenges in the region.
The Vulnerable-20 Secretariat, a group consisting of Ministers of Finance of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, is a dedicated cooperation initiative for economies systematically vulnerable to climate change.
However, Forum Chair and Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown ridiculed the G-20 for its inability to commit to the 1.5-degree target.
Brown said Pacific leaders’ priorities concern financing to meet the impacts of climate adaptation, as the Pacific is dealing with adaptation more than it is focused on mitigation measures.
“And just to be frank, $279 million euros is really a drop in the bucket, compared to the economies of the G20 countries which contributes 60 percent of global carbon emissions, the combined GDP of these countries measures in the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. So USD$270 million of dollars is really a token amount.
The V-20 Secretariat, through Global Shield, has over USD$270 million in funding for scaling up pre-arranged and trigger-based.
SOURCE: FBC NEWS/PACNEWS
