Climate Action 2016-2017

BUSINESS & FINANCE
"Since Commonwealth
small and vulnerable
countries have similar
legal and governance
systems, we will be able
to create a toolkit which
can be transferred ."
So when Hurricane Matthew stormed its
way across the Caribbean recently, leaving a
trail of death and destruction in its wake, my
immediate instinct was to pray for those who
would come face-to-face with Mother Nature at
her worst. But at times like these, people don’t
just need prayer. They need practical help; and
thanks to the Commonwealth Climate Finance
Access Hub, based in the Mauritius capital, Port
Louis, that is exactly what we have promised to
deliver. Vulnerable and small island states can
now access billions of dollars to repair and build
their country once again after a typically violent
argument with the weather.
FREEING THE FUNDS
Donors have been set the ambitious target of
delivering US$100 billion a year by 2020. Who
can argue against this idea when climate change
is arguably the greatest challenge facing the
world today? Increasing global temperatures,
rising sea levels, extreme weather and loss of
ecosystems look set to alter the planet radically
and pose an existential threat to many countries.
In my view, the Hub is a practical step forward
towards delivering the Paris Agreement on
climate change, where one of the aims was for
the urgent release of funds.
But the frustration is that all too often the
money is tied up in a bureaucracy too labyrinthine
to get your hands on. Small countries with limited
capacity and lack of expertise simply give up. In
short, the money isn’t getting to those who need
it, nearly fast enough. I believe this new initiative
will make a difference in unlocking much-needed
capital for adaption and mitigation. The costs of
building sea walls or enlarging drainage systems
are often simply too high.
The Hub will place national climate finance
advisers for one to two years at a time in those
countries receiving funds. Their job will be to
help ministries to identify and apply for funding
streams. Kiribati is a Pacific small island state
with a population of 100,000 which needs
multilateral funds for climate change mitigation
or adaption. Its permanent representative to
the United Nations, Makurita Baaro, says the
enormity of the task puts governments off from
applying for funds. She makes the point that the
paperwork needed to apply for a US$100 million
project or a US$20,000 one remains the same,
and that needs to change.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
The Hub is an innovative approach and one
which will build on-the-ground capacity to
access multilateral funds such as the Green
Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund and Climate
Investment Funds, as well as private sector
finance. Regional organisations such as the
Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre
in Belize, the Pacific Regional Environment
Programme in Samoa, Secretariat of the Pacific
Regional Environmental Programme and the
Indian Ocean Commission in Mauritius will
collaborate, offering tailored solutions to often
common situations.
The beauty of this collaboration is that these
advisers will train people in the countries
affected, creating a sustainable legacy. I
expect that best practice will spread across
Commonwealth states. Deep knowledge will
be shared and since Commonwealth small and
vulnerable countries have similar legal and
governance systems, we will be able to create
a toolkit which can be transferred island by
island, state by state.
Since the Hub was opened, Antigua and
Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica,
Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, Seychelles, Solomon
Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, Swaziland, Tonga
and Vanuatu have all asked to access the
funds. Namibia is one of the biggest and
driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It
has high climatic variability in the form of
persistent droughts, unpredictable and variable
rainfall patterns. These climatic changes
impact considerably on social and economic
conditions and climate finance can help
mitigate the problem.
But is the money we are trying to raise
enough? Last week at the International
Monetary Fund in Washington DC, one of the
world’s leading experts on climate change told
Commonwealth finance ministers that much
more was needed. Professor Lord Stern from
the London School of Economics said that
investments of US$90 trillion were required and
that the time for action was now. I agreed with
him when he said that the window of opportunity
is as narrow as two or three years. Many small
and vulnerable countries in the Commonwealth
are skilled in responding to climate shocks –
after all they have been dealing with them for
decades – and have built up resilience. They
experience climate shock after climate shock
with no time to recover.
SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING
To make progress on this, I have invited a multifaceted
panel of climate change experts to work
with the Commonwealth Secretariat to look at
whether science can not only tackle climate
change but also help us to reverse it. It is clear
that the Paris climate change agreement is not
going to be enough. The Commonwealth family
led the way in ensuring that the rest of the
world signed up to ensuring global temperature
rises were kept well below 2°C. Yet the 1.5°C
agreed target won’t be of much help to nations
like Kiribati and its 33 atolls and reef islands.
Even with this target, its former president
believes this small and vulnerable state will
have problems. That is why he consulted
United Arab Emirates engineers to see if it were
feasible to create artificial islands to save the
Kiribati people. COP21 was a good start upon
which we must capitalise.
Enabling experts to put their minds to
reversing climate change will lead to sound,
integrated, programmes, capable of attracting
the necessary funds to resolve the problems of
member states facing intractable challenges.
I believe reversing this existential threat is
possible, but only if the whole of the international
community acts as one in developing practical
solutions which work.
My concern is that the depth of the
understanding of the immediacy needed
to stop islands from disappearing has not
been adequately tackled. That is why I am
ensuring that our Hub and Spoke Programme
II has a more holistic approach when tackling
climate change. The Hub advisers need to
work closely with the agencies giving the
"The Commonwealth
Secretariat has to be
better at providing
collaborative, concrete,
facilitative support for all
our members."
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