Minister calls for major boost for climate finance – FBC News

Fiji needs $1 billion to $2 billion annually to meet its climate finance needs, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Professor Biman Prasad said at COP29.

Speaking in Baku, Azerbaijan, Prof. Prasad made an urgent call for stronger global support to tackle the escalating climate impacts the country is facing.

He said as a small island developing state, Fiji faces a unique set of challenges, including rising sea levels, extreme weather events and escalating economic losses.

Recent projections from the Asian Development Bank estimate that climate-related losses could reach 4 percent of Fiji’s GDP by 2100 unless urgent action is taken.

Prof Prasad outlined Fiji’s innovative approaches to financing climate resilience, including the Environment and Climate Adaptation Levy (ECAL), which funds critical work to protect natural resources, reduce carbon emissions and adapt infrastructure.

(Source: Ministry of Environment and Climate Change)

Three percent of ECAL proceeds are now allocated to a trust fund to support the relocation of communities threatened by climate change.

He also highlighted Fiji’s pioneering efforts as the first small island nation to issue a green government bond, and its recent success in issuing blue bonds.

To protect vulnerable smallholder farmers, Fiji has introduced a low-cost parametric insurance product, which was recently paid out after extreme rainfall. Prof. However, Prasad stressed that these efforts alone are not enough to address the magnitude of the crisis.

He called for a major scale-up of public-private partnerships, blended finance initiatives and foreign investment to mobilize resources.

While the success of Fiji’s green bonds has demonstrated strong investor interest, Prof. Prasad emphasized that global grant-based support is critical, especially through the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance to be discussed at COP29 .

Without this, he warned, SIDS like Fiji will struggle to bridge the gap between needs and available resources.

The Pacific region, which is highly vulnerable to climate impacts, is closely watching COP29 for solutions. Prof Prasad urged the global community to commit to transformative investments, streamline access to finance and ensure efforts go beyond a piecemeal, project-by-project approach.

He emphasized that Fiji and other Pacific countries are ready to lead by example and use their small economies as a testing ground for scalable climate innovations, but only with meaningful and sustained support from international partners.

Prof Prasad called on COP29 to send a clear signal of solidarity and ambitious financial commitments, framing the energy transition as a shared responsibility to be addressed over the next decade.