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Climate Finance in the Pacific Islands

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Climate Finance in the Pacific Islands Strengthening collaboration, AFTER PARIS: accelerating access and CLIMATE FINANCE prioritising adaptation for vulnerable communities IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS OXFAM RESEARCH REPORT SEPTEMBER 2016 Authors: Nic Maclellan and Sarah Meads, Independent Researchers. After Paris: Climate finance in the Pacific islands Published: Oxfam New Zealand and Oxfam Australia, September 2016 Level 1, 14 West Street, Newton, Auckland, New Zealand 1145 © Oxfam New Zealand Website: oxfam.org.nz and oxfam.org.au Email: [email protected] Telephone: +64 9 355 6500 Authors: Nic Maclellan and Sarah Meads, Independent Researchers Commissioning Manager: Jason Myers, Oxfam New Zealand Acknowledgements: Oxfam New Zealand and Oxfam Australia wish to thank the interviewees who took part in this research and who represented the following organisations: Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC); Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP); Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS); Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF); Green Climate Fund (GCF); Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Fiji; Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN); Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT); Australian Aid Program and Australian International Climate Change Team at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT); Plan International Australia; World Wildlife Fund Australia (WWF); Oxfam in the Pacific; New Zealand Aid Program and New Zealand International Climate Change Team at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT); and individual specialists on Pacific climate finance. Thank you also to Ben Dowdle, Oxfam New Zealand intern, who conducted preliminary desk research, and to Paula Feehan and Simon Bradshaw for their further work on the report. OXFAM RESEARCH REPORTS Oxfam Research Reports are written in order to share research results, contribute to public debate and invite feedback on development and humanitarian policy and practice. Disclaimer: The views of this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Oxfam or any funding agency. This publication is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 international licence. The information in this publication is correct at time of going to press. ABOUT OXFAM One person in three in the world lives in poverty. Oxfam is determined to change that world by mobilising the power of people against poverty. Around the globe, Oxfam works to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. We save lives and help rebuild livelihoods when crisis strikes. And we campaign so that the voices of the poor influence the local and global decisions that EFATE, VANUATU. Wolda Edward, affect them. 52, helps cleaning his neighbour’s house yard after Cyclone Pam. In all we do, Oxfam works with local partner organisations and Photo: Vlad Sokhin/Panos/OxfamAUS. alongside vulnerable women and men to end the injustices that cause poverty. 2 AFTER PARIS: CLIMATE FINANCE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT AT: www.oxfam.org.au/pacificclimatefinance AFTER PARIS: CLIMATE FINANCE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 3 Executive summary Pacific island countries are working hard to address the and the adverse impact of the powerful 2015–2016 El Niño on escalating realities of climate change, including the impact food and water resources. on land, livelihoods, and on the food and water security of their most vulnerable communities. The need for accessible, Climate change presents an increasingly existential challenge predictable, adequate and appropriate financial support to to people in the Pacific region. Over the coming decades, large meet the climate crisis is urgent and growing. numbers of Pacific people — and in some cases entire nations — face displacement from their homes and livelihoods. Access to climate finance — international funding to support These realities are yet to be met by a sufficient increase in climate action in developing countries — is a matter of global the scale and accessibility of financial resources. Australia justice: those who have contributed least to the causes has failed to increase its contribution to international climate of climate change are typically the most vulnerable to its finance in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement or in impacts, and have the least resources to respond. keeping with stronger commitments from other developed nations. Pacific governments understandably remain As wealthy industrialised nations, and the largest members of concerned over the adequacy, predictability and accessibility the Pacific Islands Forum, Australia and New Zealand have a of funding. Climate finance is generally provided from Official particular responsibility to support the needs of their Pacific Development Assistance (ODA) budgets but neither Australia neighbours. Greater collaboration and collective action nor New Zealand have increased their ODA to support these among all actors, from the global to the national and local, is new commitments in addition to existing aid priorities. Overall, necessary to improve access to climate finance. the responsibility of Australia and New Zealand to contribute to the climate financing needs of their Pacific island New research commissioned by Oxfam and resulting in this neighbours remains unmet and underfunded. report, After Paris: Climate finance in the Pacific islands, takes stock of the climate risks facing the Pacific region, and While the findings in this report place particular responsibility considers these risks in relation to commitments under the on Australia and New Zealand, there are recommendations Paris Agreement, the complex nature of existing financial for a range of actors, including Pacific regional agencies, flows, current commitments from Australia and New Zealand, Pacific governments, non-government organisations (NGOs), and the range of challenges that must be overcome to ensure researchers and the private sector. Collaboration and collective support reaches those most in need. action among all actors can empower Pacific governments and their most vulnerable citizens to build resilience to climate Based on interviews with a range of government, civil change — in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. society and community representatives, this report makes Mobilising a broad constituency of actors, from the global to the recommendations for urgent action across 11 strategic areas, local level, is essential to meet the profound challenges that including improving access to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), climate change poses to communities living aligning support with the plans and priorities of Pacific island in the Pacific region. countries, prioritising civil society and community initiatives, developing new and innovative sources of funding, and improving reporting and transparency. After Paris: Climate finance in the Pacific islands updates and extends the findings and recommendations from the 2012 Oxfam research project Owning Adaptation in the Pacific: Strengthening governance of climate adaptation finance. Of major concern since Oxfam’s 2012 report is the escalation of climate change impacts, as predicted by climate scientists. These have included destructive cyclones like Horijon Polli, Bangladesh: Shobnam lives Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and Cyclone in a slum in which all residents are from Winston in Fiji, as well as sea-level rise the low-caste Hindu sweeper comminuty. Photo: Tom Pietrasik/Oxfam. EFATE, VANUATU. Marina Kalo, 30, mother of 5 children, with her daughter Ester, 3 (right) and her niece Leilani, 8 (left) near one of the houses Pang Pang village that was destroyed by Cyclone Pam. Photo: Vlad Sokhin/Panos/OxfamAUS] 4 AFTER PARIS: CLIMATE FINANCE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS SOUTH TARAWA, KIRIBATI. Children playing on a rusty shipwreck in Betio. The ship was lifted by king tides and crashed into the seawall in February 2015. Photo: Vlad Sokhin/Panos/OxfamAUS] Escalating and disproportionate living in squatter settlements on hillsides, floodplains and costs facing the Pacific other vulnerable locations. Climate change and disasters have a disproportionate impact Pacific island countries are on the frontline of the global on the poorest members of the community, and on women climate crisis and experience more damage to their and children. Even with much stronger global action to reduce livelihoods, wellbeing, economic prosperity and security carbon pollution, Pacific communities will face significantly than other regions. greater impacts over the coming decades. Pacific governments are already subject to large climate-related financial costs In the low-lying atoll nations of Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tokelau and from their national budgets. the Marshall Islands, and in individual islands within the Papua New Guinea archipelago, the northern Cook Islands, Pacific leaders have consistently identified climate change as the Federated States of Micronesia and the Solomon Islands, the greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing communities already face severe challenges as rising seas of their people, and as one of the greatest challenges for contaminate fresh-water supplies, destroy food crops and the entire world. Leadership from Pacific island countries erode land. Large numbers of people face displacement over was instrumental in securing strong outcomes in the Paris the coming decades. Agreement, including agreement that we must pursue efforts to limit the global average temperature
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