Pacific island countries are working hard to address the escalating realities of climate change, including the impact on land, livelihoods, and on the food and water security of their most vulnerable communities. The need for accessible, predictable, adequate and appropriate financial support to meet the climate crisis is urgent and growing.
Access to climate finance — international funding to support climate action in developing countries — is a matter of global justice: those who have contributed least to the causes of climate change are typically the most vulnerable to its impacts, and have the least resources to respond.
As wealthy industrialised nations, and the largest members of the Pacific Islands Forum, Australia and New Zealand have a particular responsibility to support the needs of their Pacific neighbours. Greater collaboration and collective action among all actors, from the global to the national and local, is necessary to improve access to climate finance.
New research commissioned by Oxfam and resulting in this report, After Paris: Climate finance in the Pacific islands, takes stock of the climate risks facing the Pacific region, and considers these risks in relation to commitments under the Paris Agreement, the complex nature of existing financial flows, current commitments from Australia and New Zealand, and the range of challenges that must be overcome to ensure support reaches those most in need.
Based on interviews with a range of government, civil society and community representatives, this report makes recommendations for urgent action across 11 strategic areas, including:
- improving access to the Green Climate Fund
- setting regional priorities
- Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs): converting climate plans into action
- resetting the balance between adaptation and mitigation funding
- managing the diversity of funding sources
- aligning private-sector initiatives, adaptation and local ownership
- prioritising civil society and community initiatives
- integrating gender, youth and vulnerability
- developing new and innovative sources of funding
- phasing out subsidies for coal and fossil fuels
- improving reporting, transparency and learning