A Fijian Minister on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 stressed the importance of dealing with climate change, saying the existential threat of climate change will persist much longer than any pandemic.
Faiyaz Koya, the Fiji’s Minister for Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport, said this while speaking at a virtual conference on climate change.
He said that collective global efforts to solve the climate crises would define their ability to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Koya, who is also the acting Minister for Economy, mentioned the climate finance landscape which is overly complicated and fragmented with multiple sources of finance, each having very different access requirements.
“This stretches the already limited capacity of developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States or SIDS in short, to mobilise adequate finance for meaningful climate action.
There is an urgent need for more uniformed access modalities and criteria across major bilateral, multilateral and private sources of climate finance,” he said.
Koya said Fiji is concerned by the lack of long-term commitment for climate finance from the developed world.
A sustainable recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19) will require developing countries to diversify their economies and catalyse new streams of finance.
“As one of the victims of climate change, Fiji is the first country to ratify the Paris Agreement as well as the first small island state to lead the climate negotiations as President of the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23).
“Now Fiji is among the nations committed to net-zero emissions by 2050.’’
