Pacific Island States receive Climate Change Help

Pacific Island States receive Climate Change Help



 
May 2007 - The impact of climate change 
represents a "major security issue" for low-lying Pacific nations 
threatened by rising sea levels, agreed the Conference of Pacific Islands 
Leaders that concluded in Washington on Wednesday. The island states are 
seeking assistance from the United States, but instead help in the form of 
a $100 million grant package is being offered by the Global Environment 
Facility. 
Kessai Note, president of the Marshall Islands and current chairman of the 
Leader’s group, made the appeal on behalf of island nations at the 
conference, which was opened by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. 
Kessai Note is president of the Marshall Islands and chairman of the 
Conference of Pacific Islands Leaders. 
While the administration of President George W. Bush has long taken a 
skeptic’s view of global warming scenarios, President Note said his region 
cannot afford to be complacent. 
"Since my election more than five years ago, I have been traveling the 
world trying to draw attention to the threat that my people face," Note 
has said. "We are going to be the world's first environmental refugees if 
the world does not act." 
The Pacific Island nations are about to receive a new level of financial 
assistance that can be used to deal with climate issues, but not from the 
United States. 
A new environment strategy, backed by a proposed $100 million grant 
package from the Global Environment Facility, GEF, was agreed to on 
Wednesday by the heads of state and top government leaders of the 15 small 
island states and territories at the Pacific Leaders Conference. 
The GEF is an international financial mechanism with 177 member countries 
that finances projects to address six critical threats to the global 
environment, including climate change. 
The new funding for the Pacific island nations, a six-fold increase over 
previous GEF financing for the region, will be used to fight climate 
change, protect island species and shared waters, and conserve the fragile 
environment of the islands. 
"Pacific island nations and territories are becoming more vulnerable to 
the threats of climate change, including sea level rise," said President 
Note. "We intend to channel these resources to launch priority projects 
designed to meet these threats frontally, while promoting sustainable 
development to benefit our people." 
"Small island states, territories and atolls are among the most beautiful 
but remote places on the planet," said Monique Barbut, CEO and chairperson 
of the GEF. 

Monique Barbut of France became CEO and chairperson of the Global 
Environment Facility in June 2006. She has a history of providing 
environmental economic assistance to Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean 
countries. 
"Our assistance provides seed money for a new generation of projects that 
will have lasting beneficial impacts across the Pacific region," Barbut 
said. 
Barbut also highlighted the urgent need for a decision on the location of 
the Adaptation Fund, a fund established under the Kyoto Protocol that will 
likely become the largest source of financing for adaptation in the 
poorest and most vulnerable countries, including small island states. 
That decision could come at the next UN Convention on Climate Change 
Conference of the Parties in Bali, Indonesia in December. 
"We commend the GEF and its CEO, Monique Barbut for actions that recognize 
the importance of islands worldwide," said President of the Republic of 
Palau Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr. 
"The Micronesia leaders are excited that the proposed $100 million grant 
would include the Micronesia Challenge sub-regional program. This is 
exactly the kind of public-private partnership that will strengthen 
effective resource conservation and promote sustainable development in our 
region," said President Remengesau. 
The $100 million marks an exponential increase in environmental financing 
for the region, to be spread over three years in quick-disbursing grants. 
The Republic of the Marshall Islands consist of 29 atolls and five islands 
within 700,000 square miles of ocean - all vulnerable to sea level rise. 

By contrast, over the past 15 years, GEF investments to Pacific Ocean 
countries and territories amounted to only $86 million. 
Rather than attacking problems project by project, the new, programmatic 
approach will allow countries to focus their strategies on a set of 
priority issues for the global environment, build and capture synergies, 
and apply a common set of tracking tools to monitor progress, Barbut said. 

A regional approach will be adopted to help countries and GEF aggregate 
national programs at the regional level, and allow for the scaling-up of 
beneficial impacts across the Pacific Ocean region, Barbut explained. 
The 20 Pacific delegates said the four day meeting was the beginning of a 
new partnership with the United States. 
The meeting, the eighth held by the Conference of Pacific Islands Leaders 
since the organization was founded in 1980, discussed economic 
development, national security, trade, foreign aid, environmental 
protection, climate change, fisheries management, natural disasters, USAID 
and the desire to expand U.S. public diplomacy programs. 
President Remengesau of Palau encouraged broad participation in "the 
Micronesian Challenge which promotes the establishment of marine protected 
areas throughout the Pacific Islands region." 
Highlighted by meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the 
precedent-setting gathering included numerous high-level meetings with 
U.S. legislators and officials of the federal government. 
The planned U.S. military expansion in Guam was discussed at length and it 
was agreed that the East-West Center in Honolulu, home to the secretariat 
of the Conference of Pacific Islands Leaders, would undertake research and 
analysis related to plans for an increased U.S. military presence in Guam. 

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it is working with the Department 
of Defense’s Joint Guam Program Office to explore options for neighboring 
countries to share in the construction projects generated by military 
expansion on Guam. 
The office of the spokesman for the State Department said neighboring 
island states in Micronesia would be able to contribute to and benefit 
from construction activities that will be triggered by the relocation of 
8,000 U.S. troops from Okinawa to Guam. 
U.S. Navy sailors stand at parade rest as China's People’s Liberation 
Army-Navy guided missile destroyer Shenzhen makes its first visit to Apra 
Harbor, Guam, on October 22, 2003. 
Facing a shortage of workers, Guam has been struggling to increase its 
labor force to deal with hundreds of upcoming construction jobs. 
Local contractors are depending on foreign workers from the Philippines, 
China and Taiwan, while island officials have been asking the federal 
government to loosen visa restrictions for Guam. 
But the State Department is more interested in tapping the citizens of 
Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia who, 
under a political arrangement with the United States known as the Compact 
of Free Association, are currently eligible to work in Guam and other U.S. 
territories. 
The United States plans to expand its public diplomacy efforts in the 
Pacific Islands through a new public affairs office in Fiji and expanded 
exchange and English-language programs, says the State Department’s Karen 
Hughes. 
In remarks to the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders on Tuesday, 
Hughes, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public 
affairs, said the State Department is hoping to increase the numbers of 
participants from the Pacific Islands region in U.S. education and 
exchange programs. 
Hughes said the State Department plans to open a new regional public 
affairs office at the U.S. Embassy in Suva, Fiji, this summer. She said 
the office will introduce press, cultural and education programs to the 
region in conjunction with the American embassies in Fiji, Micronesia, the 
Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea.    

       
      

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