Port Vila, Vanuatu (21 September 2018) - The Government of Vanuatu has launched its Climate Change Finance Review. Guided by the Pacific Climate Change Finance Assessment Framework, a multi-agency team led by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat reviewed Vanuatu’s climate finance actions late last year and supported production of the report.
The launch was attended by key stakeholders that included representatives from the national government, development partners, private sector and civil society.
Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management, Hon Ham Lini, said the findings of the climate finance review better inform the Government of the national climate finance landscape and provide a wider understanding of how to improve and streamline Vanuatu’s accessibility and management of international climate change finance.
In addition, Hon Lini said, the report provides practical recommendations for Vanuatu and its partners to support climate change-related work. Vanuatu currently receives climate change funding primarily as grants, concessional loans and technical support. Between 2013 and 2017, close to US$200 million was approved for climate change related activities in Vanuatu from a wide range of sources.
These external climate financing supplemented domestic resources to implement the Government’s climate change priorities, in line with the national Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy and Vanuatu’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). However, the increase in funding has been accompanied by an increase in the complexity to access these funds and the requirement to coordinate with a range of implementing agencies and funding sources.
Currently, Vanuatu has accessed USD 23 million from the Green Climate Fund for a climate information services project, and three readiness grants with the support of GIZ, SPREP and GGGI. Regional partners that undertook the climate finance review include the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS), the SPC/USAID Institutional Strengthening of PICs to Adapt to Climate Change (ISACC) Project, the GIZ/DFAT Climate Finance Readiness for the Pacific (CFRP) Project, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the USAID Climate Ready Project.
