Project Description
CTIF will provide technical assistance to the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) located in Fiji to support the development of a permanent climate finance Help Desk facility.
It is envisioned that the Help Desk will assist Pacific Island Countries (PICs), including national designated authorities (NDAs), in accessing financing from international sources that will assist them in implementing their climate change mitigation and adaptation projects and actions (climate financing). The project and Help Desk will build on and leverage PaCE-SD’s existing postgraduate Climate Finance and Adaptation Project Design course and the existing network of 12 USP campuses across the Pacific.
Expected impacts from the TA include improved capacity of PICs entities to prepare concept notes and proposals through which they can gain access to financing needed to meet their international climate obligations and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The Help Desk will also assist PICs in integrating gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) considerations and Environmental and Social Safeguards (ESS) into their climate financing proposals, while enhancing the participation of women in climate projects. In doing so, the Help Desk will enhance PIC ownership over climate change adaptation and mitigation activities, build a strong local and regional capacity for providing related technical assistance, and strengthen regional networks established among PaCE-SD and relevant stakeholders.
Problem being addressed by CTIF
To begin to address the challenges posed by climate change, PICs have ratified the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and made voluntary commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and support climate and disaster resilience through their Nationally Determined Contributions, and have reflected these commitments in strategic planning and policy frameworks, including their National Adaptation Plans. However, governments have faced difficulties in accessing financing to implement said commitments and adaption measures. In turn, this ahs hindered PICs’ abilities to build resilience and adaptive capacity and to shift to low-carbon development trajectories and deterred foreign investment because of high climate-related risks. This assessment was backed by PIF Secretariat’s first Regional Synthesis Report of the Pacific Climate Change and Disaster Risk Finance Assessment[1] in August 2019 that provided evidence of how climate financing is a crosscutting issue linked to national development, planning, and budgeting.
Development Dimension
Due to gender roles in many PICs, women and indigenous groups are often more vulnerable to the consequences of external shocks (e.g. tropical cyclones) and stressors (e.g. increasing temperatures) associated with climate change. If not adequately addressed, climate change will therefore exacerbate the factors that contribute to poverty and gender/social inequities in PICs. To this end, there is a need to ensure that countries applying for climate financing will always need to address GESI and ESS for a successful proposal, which is among the key objectives of this TA.
[1] www.forumsec.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/PCCFAF-Synthesis-Report_2019_Web-Version.pdf