In October, Tropical Cyclone Wati arrived before our cyclone season had even officially begun. Aitutaki, one of our most visited islands, felt the full force of the storm, and our other Southern Groups islands, including Rarotonga, felt its effects. Our people’s preparation made the difference, but Wati is another sign that the weather patterns we have long relied on are becoming harder to predict. With a very strong El Niño underway, we do not expect it to be the last.
For the Cook Islands and our Pacific neighbours, the question is no longer whether disasters will come, but whether we can recover and build resilience before the next one.As leaders head to COP31 in Türkiye, the major emitters should remember that Pacific communities did not create this crisis.
The countries most responsible need to step up. Our countries need climate finance that is sufficient, predictable and grant-based, because we cannot borrow our way to resilience. The Paris Agreement already recognises the special circumstances of small island developing states and commits to simplified access for us (Articles 9.4 and 9.9). It is time that commitment showed up in practice. Keeping 1.5°C within reach depends on it.
At the Pre-COP in Fiji in October, I put a simple point to our partners. Delay does not remove the cost. It transfers it: to our budgets, to our public servants, and to families who pay for time they did not waste. If the world can mobilise hundreds of billions in a few months to counter the impact of the global fuel crisis, why can we not place the same urgency and commitment on climate finance? Urgency is a two-way street.
I set three tests for the new climate finance access plan proposed there. Put a clock on access: providers should publish decision timeframes, explain delays and report how long it takes to reach first disbursement. Stop making administrations prove the same things repeatedly. And finance the way our islands work, through long-term programmes, and grants where more debt would undo the resilience we are building. At COP31, tell us what you will change. A year later, show us what changed.
The Green Climate Fund is our biggest climate partner. Of the more than US$109 million in climate finance the Cook Islands has secured since 2018, around US$72 million came through the Fund, including a US$44.2 million program that puts money directly into households, businesses and community groups to build back after cyclones. A strong third replenishment of the Fund, with grants protected, is one of our key asks on the road to COP31.
The Pacific is not waiting for the world to act. Alongside the Green Climate Fund, the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) is one of the two vehicles our countries rely on. Endorsed by Pacific Leaders when the Cook Islands hosted the Forum in 2023, it is the first Pacific-led, owned and managed, climate and disaster resilience financing facility, and it gets resources to communities for preparedness and adaptation without adding to national debt.
The PRF is already making a difference, from the restoration of a traditional taro patch by a women’s group in Palau, to rainwater harvesting in the Marshall Islands and Nauru, youths restoring native coastal trees in Tonga, food security in Niue, and community sanitation in Solomon Islands. These first community grants show what a facility designed by and for the Pacific can do: get money to the people on the frontline.
But we have a long way to go. Pledges now total US$190 million, against an initial target of US$500 million by 2026, and a long-term goal of US$1.5 billion. That is modest next to what our region needs, but every dollar counts.
At the Pre-COP, Leaders adopted the Taku Pakasoa Declaration. It calls for a substantial increase in climate finance and reform of the international financial architecture, so that finance, including grant-based and concessional finance is delivered at the speed and scale required, particularly for small islands and least developed countries.
The Cook Islands supports this call as we head to Antalya, and for countries like ours, grant finance must come first.
COP31 must be an implementation COP. That means commitments already made reaching the communities most affected, a strong replenishment of the Green Climate Fund, and capital for Pacific-led mechanisms such as the Pacific Resilience Facility.
We will report on our delivery. We ask those who control the funds to report on theirs. Think of climate finance as an investment in our future. For partners looking at the PRF, this is the moment to invest for our futures.
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