ForumNews: CLIMATE- The Pacific's multi-million-dollar Resilience Facility continues its global wave of capitalisation support, with a high-level visit to Washington in March as momentum grows for securing Pacific climate resilience and disaster preparedness.
15th April 2024, Suva—The Pacific Resilience Facility's capitalisation momentum to help secure Pacific communities from climate disasters is building, following a high-level mission to Washington last month led by the Pacific Islands Forum Chair, Cook Islands Prime Minister, and Minister of Finance Hon. Mark Brown, and the Minister of Finance for Tonga, Hon. Tiofilusi Tiueti. They were supported by a PIF delegation led by the Forum Secretary General Henry Puna.
The high-level meetings in Washington aimed at soliciting support for the capitalisation of this first-ever Pacific-led and Member-owned USD 500 million transformative climate financing facility will help Pacific communities respond to the existential threat of climate change and the vulnerability of ocean states to disasters.
The Washington mission was an important follow-up to John Kerry’s announcement in the margins of the Loss and Damage pledge event at COP28 for USD 4.5 million to support the PRF set-up.
A highlight of the March meetings in Washington D.C., was the meeting with seven US Senators, including Senator Schatz, Senator Cardin, Senator Murkowski, Senator Warner, Senator Cortez Masto, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Hirono, to discuss US support for the Pacific Resilience Facility.
“We had the distinct pleasure of meeting with US Senators whose interest in the PRF and community climate security was commendable. The opportunity to attend the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Pacific Islands region also demonstrated the value of this partnership with US re-engagement with the region,” said SG Puna.
The Pacific delegation also called on the new Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, who showed strong interest in supporting PRF funding as part of US foreign and climate policy and is familiar with the Pacific’s climate challenges.
The Honourable Ministers also discussed the PRF’s investment governance in their meeting with World Bank Vice President and Treasurer Jorge Familiar Calderon and Vice President East Asia and Pacific, Manuela V. Ferro.
“The delegation’s meeting with the World Bank was very positive, receiving in principle support from the World Bank to support the strengthening of investment governance and asset management for the PRF”, SG Puna highlighted. The delegation also met the International Monetary Fund.
PIFS also signed an MOU with the US Treasury on Correspondent Banking Relationships in the region, which are critical to transferring funds to communities that need them most.
“Pacific Leaders are committed to the PRF, and the PRF domicile recommendation and PRF Constitution will be tabled to the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in July and the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum Meeting in August in Tonga, and we look forward to our development partners support to capitalise the PRF successfully”, added SG Puna. –ENDS
