Climate Change Resilience
By Samisoni Pareti, amplifying the Pacific voice at COP21, in Paris, France
5 December, 2015, Paris, France, COP21 - Loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate go well beyond adaptation, which is why small island nations like Palau will fight hard to have loss and damage built-in as a stand alone mechanism in the Paris Agreement.
The comment was made by Ambassador Ngedikes Olai Uludong, who is Palau's Ambassador to the European Union and also Ambassador on Climate Change when addressing a side event on the oceans in the margins of negotiations for a new climate change agreement in Paris.
"For a small island like Palau, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands, we are vulnerable, and everyone think we can get insurance, but no insurance company will give you cover for loss and damage. It's just too risky.
"In Palau, because of our tradition we can build resilience. Going beyond adaptation and loss and damage, my President has announced landmark legislation, closing our (200 miles) EEZ (exclusive economic zone) to give our humanity a little space to adapt."
The President of Palau, Tommy Remengesau Jr had told the ocean forum earlier in the day that the marine park will ban commercial fishing in 500,000 square kilometres of ocean. He said such a no-take zone will be an effective carbon sink that will allow marine diversity to recover and for fish stocks to rebound, providing spillover benefits for our oceans and for our world.
Speaking at the same event, Fiji's senior Foreign Affairs official Luke Daunivalu spoke about the challenges small island nations face in accessing climate change adaptation finance. On its own, Fiji would not have been able to secure a FJ$200 million loan from the Green Climate Fund, becoming the first Pacific island nation to do so.
Daunivalu said Fiji got help from the Asian Development Bank. As Fiji's representative to the adaptation committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Daunivalu said it was not until he attended a workshop on climate change adaptation financing was Fiji able to secure GCF funds.
"The second key issue that was addressed in that workshop was the issue of enabling environment, how our countries are able to better access the finance that is available. We realise that long term capacity development is necessary and this is not only in terms of upskilling and upgrading the skills of personnel that needs to deal with financing but also to have in place the institutional structures that will bear or absorb the finance that would flow in and of course having the necessary laws in place.
"We also have to integrate adaptation into development. Of course we realise also that there is a role for the private sector and the integration of adaptation into business. That's an area we are looking at in order to help and assist countries, particularly developing countries to better able to access climate finance."
The islands' access to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was also raised at the Oceans Summit by Rawleston Moore, who works as a senior climate change specialist at the GEF. In partnership with the ADB, he said the Facility is supporting the Cook Islands' 100 per cent renewable energy target, as well as investment in biomass energy in Samoa.
He said if small island states need a game changer, then OTEC, the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology may be a way to go, given that this technology of sourcing power from the variance in ocean temperature can only work in tropical oceans.
Moore said that in addition to providing power, OTEC also supplies fresh water and supports aquaculture and related industries. - #PacIslands
5 December, 2015, Paris, France, COP21 - Loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate go well beyond adaptation, which is why small island nations like Palau will fight hard to have loss and damage built-in as a stand alone mechanism in the Paris Agreement.
The comment was made by Ambassador Ngedikes Olai Uludong, who is Palau's Ambassador to the European Union and also Ambassador on Climate Change when addressing a side event on the oceans in the margins of negotiations for a new climate change agreement in Paris.
"For a small island like Palau, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands, we are vulnerable, and everyone think we can get insurance, but no insurance company will give you cover for loss and damage. It's just too risky.
"In Palau, because of our tradition we can build resilience. Going beyond adaptation and loss and damage, my President has announced landmark legislation, closing our (200 miles) EEZ (exclusive economic zone) to give our humanity a little space to adapt."
The President of Palau, Tommy Remengesau Jr had told the ocean forum earlier in the day that the marine park will ban commercial fishing in 500,000 square kilometres of ocean. He said such a no-take zone will be an effective carbon sink that will allow marine diversity to recover and for fish stocks to rebound, providing spillover benefits for our oceans and for our world.
Speaking at the same event, Fiji's senior Foreign Affairs official Luke Daunivalu spoke about the challenges small island nations face in accessing climate change adaptation finance. On its own, Fiji would not have been able to secure a FJ$200 million loan from the Green Climate Fund, becoming the first Pacific island nation to do so.
Daunivalu said Fiji got help from the Asian Development Bank. As Fiji's representative to the adaptation committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Daunivalu said it was not until he attended a workshop on climate change adaptation financing was Fiji able to secure GCF funds.
"The second key issue that was addressed in that workshop was the issue of enabling environment, how our countries are able to better access the finance that is available. We realise that long term capacity development is necessary and this is not only in terms of upskilling and upgrading the skills of personnel that needs to deal with financing but also to have in place the institutional structures that will bear or absorb the finance that would flow in and of course having the necessary laws in place.
"We also have to integrate adaptation into development. Of course we realise also that there is a role for the private sector and the integration of adaptation into business. That's an area we are looking at in order to help and assist countries, particularly developing countries to better able to access climate finance."
The islands' access to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was also raised at the Oceans Summit by Rawleston Moore, who works as a senior climate change specialist at the GEF. In partnership with the ADB, he said the Facility is supporting the Cook Islands' 100 per cent renewable energy target, as well as investment in biomass energy in Samoa.
He said if small island states need a game changer, then OTEC, the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology may be a way to go, given that this technology of sourcing power from the variance in ocean temperature can only work in tropical oceans.
Moore said that in addition to providing power, OTEC also supplies fresh water and supports aquaculture and related industries. - #PacIslands