11 September 2024, Apia, Samoa – China’s commitment to an environmentally Resilient Pacific continues through its partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), with the handover of its annual contribution of USD 200,000.
The Chinese Ambassador to Samoa, His Excellency Fei Mingxing visited the SPREP Campus to handover the cheque of USD 200,000 in support of the Secretariat’s efforts in coordinating regional activities to protect and manage the environment sustainably and address the climate crisis.
“At the just concluded 53rd Pacific Islands Forum, Mr. Qian Bo, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government on Pacific Island Affairs, announced that China will provide USD 200,000 in funding support to SPREP this year. This again demonstrates our sincerity and determination to help Pacific Island countries cope with climate change and achieve sustainable development”, Ambassador Mingxing said.
“China attaches great importance to ecological progress and climate and environmental governance and has always taken tackling climate change as an important strategy for national development”.
His Excellency also expressed his gratitude to the Secretariat for its work in supporting regional efforts in the protection and management of the environment.
“I would like to commend SPREP for its contribution to environmental protection and the fight against climate change in the region. We look forward to further strengthening cooperation with SPREP and Pacific island countries, working together to implement the Blue Pacific 2050 Strategy with concrete actions, and building an even closer China-Pacific Island countries community with a shared future”.
SPREP Director General, Mr Sefanaia Nawadra met with Ambassador Mingxing to receive the generous contribution on behalf of the Secretariat.
“We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Government of the People’s Republic of China for this generous donation to SPREP which is very much appreciated. SPREP will continue to prioritise this assistance to strengthen its core operations and thus better implement climate change related activities to assist implementation of the Paris Agreement.”
“This donation ensures SPREP is able to help our Members address the triple planetary crisis not only of climate change, but also biodiversity loss, waste and pollution. Up until 2017, the donation was an annual contribution of USD 150,000 which was increased to USD 200,000 in 2018 as the result of the commitment of President Xi Jinping to address climate change, and to help support Pacific capability to address the challenges of climate change.”
Mr Nawadra further highlighted the importance of the donation to SPREP’s functions, “The generous contribution of the People’s Republic of China to SPREP has made a positive impact on the work of SPREP in climate change as well as all of our strategic priorities through the strengthening of our core, which enables SPREP to be more responsive and adaptive to the needs of our Pacific island countries and territories.”
The funding to SPREP in 2023 of USD 200,000 provided critical support across the organisation in strengthening the capacity of SPREP to assist Pacific island Members in addressing their key priorities of climate change resilience and the close linkages to oceans and associated capacity building activities.
For more information, please contact Ms Audrey Brown-Pereira, SPREP Executive Officer, at [email protected].