Page 23 - IB August 2020

Economy Economy

Tuvalu Minister for Finance, Seve Paeniu. Photo: Malama Te’o-Paeniu Sam

to fully meet GCF pledges made by former President Barack equal emphasis on the effectiveness of climate finance as
Obama. But the possible victory of Joe Biden in November’s well,” he said. “About US$2 billion has been approved be-
US Presidential election will transform the funding debate, tween 2010 and the present to our region from global climate
with the Democratic Party nominee pledging new climate and disaster risk funding mechanisms. But it’s important that
action. Pressure for new funding pledges will also mount as our countries need to acknowledge the fact that we need to
the European Union looks to climate action as a key element track the effectiveness of those resources. so those resources
of post-pandemic recovery. Finally, the next round of global also result in tangible impacts, making a difference in the
climate talks in 2021 begins a process to increase the global lives of our community [and] people.”
target for climate finance (under the Paris agreement, funding The Forum Secretariat has begun preliminary work with the
for developing nations, which should ramp up by 2025 beyond governments of Vanuatu and Solomon Islands to pilot National
the existing annual target of US$100 billion a year). Climate Finance tracking systems. But Taloiburi acknowledges
“tracking is in its infancy in the region” and says donors will
Using money wisely increasingly turn to countries that have effective systems to
In coming months, overseas donors will be committing sig- account for grants.
nificant resources towards the health sector as well as socio- “Countries that have robust public financial management
economic recovery from the pandemic. But domestic calls systems are the ones that are successful in terms of accessing
for resources will likely create more pressure to show results resources,” he said. “It’s not necessarily those that are most
from overseas projects. Island governments will need to show vulnerable. You could be a most vulnerable country, but if
that climate adaptation and resilience projects are designed you don’t have robust public financial management systems,
better and smarter, and provide evidence of clear benefits for you may not be very successful in terms of accessing global
local communities. climate funds and disaster risk funding mechanisms.”
Professor Meg Keen heads the Australia Pacific Security Taloiburi said that Forum island governments could also
College in Canberra. She notes that Australia’s development consider establishing buffer funds, that can deal with emer-
assistance budget is scheduled to reduce in coming years, gencies in the short term as they seek longer-term external
which will mean that limited funds will need to be used more resources: “One of the key challenges our countries faced
effectively: “We’ve pivoted our aid to deal with COVID-19 when COVID-19 came was the fact that most of them don’t
and if the pie doesn’t get any bigger, there’s going to be less have a national contingency risk financing mechanism, where
money to respond to climate change adaptation, unless we’re they could quickly draw on to cushion the impacts while
very, very smart on how we spend money.” waiting for external assistance to arrive. We hope that going
Forum Secretariat advisor Exsley Taloiburi agrees that it’s forward, countries could consider that option, where at least
important to monitor and document the results of climate they have some resources set aside for those rainy days.”
resilience projects.
“While access [to funding] is a priority, we should also place nicmac3056@gmail.com

Islands Business, August 2020 23