Climate finance in the Pacific: An overview of flows to the region’s Small Island Developing States

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Pacific face serious threats from climate change and will need significant international climate finance if they are to be able to respond. However, there is very little synthesized data on climate finance in the Pacific region. This paper aims to fill that gap by analysing published data reported by donor countries and multilateral climate funds to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee.

The analysis covers 15 countries, collectively and individually: the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. It finds that in 2010–2014, a total of 748 million USD in finance principally targeting climate change was committed to those countries, almost all as grants. Around 59% was for adaptation, 36% for mitigation, and 5% for both together.

Presentation of this analysis

About 72% was sourced through bilateral channels. Among the multilateral funds, the Global Environment Facility, combining the GEF Trust Fund and the Least Developed Countries Fund, was by far the largest source through 2014, though since 2015, there have been several large allocations to some Pacific countries, particularly from the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience and the Green Climate Fund.

The vast majority of the funding (86%) is being delivered as project-based support, while direct budget support is rare. In terms of sectoral distribution, the largest share of funding has supported work to create an “enabling environment”.

Along with quantifying the data, the paper identifies patterns that warrant further exploration, such as differences between bilateral and multilateral flows and between countries. It also highlights the importance of making available more transparent, comprehensive climate finance data.

Downloads

Note: The PDFs and Figure ES-1 below were updated on 8 March 2017 to correct an error in Figure ES-1 in the original version.

• Download the working paper (PDF, 4.3MB)
• Download the front matter and executive summary (PDF, 744kb)
• Country summaries (PDFs):
  • Cook Islands
  • Federated States of Micronesia
  • Fiji
  • Kiribati
  • Nauru
  • Niue
  • Palau
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Republic of Marshall Islands
  • Samoa
  • Solomon Islands
  • Timor Leste
  • Tonga
  • Tuvalu
  • Vanuatu
• Key figures from the study (PNGs):
  • Figure ES-1: Summary of climate finance in the Pacific, 2010–2014 (committed amounts, in million US$)
  • Figure ES-2 & 4: Sources, objectives and recipients of Pacific climate finance, 2010–2014
  • Figure 2: Climate finance to Pacific Island countries, 2010–2014
  • Figure 5: Per capita climate finance by country and country group
  • Figure 6: Distribution of climate finance in each country by policy goal, 2010–2014
  • Figure 7: Climate finance to the Pacific Island countries by sector, 2010–2014
  • Figures 7a and 7b: Adaptation and mitigation finance to the Pacific Island countries by sector, 2010–2014
  • Figure 8: Types of climate finance support provided to the Pacific Island countries, 2010–2014
  • Figure 10: First recipients of climate finance to Pacific Island countries, 2010–2014 (figures are in million US$)
  • Figure 12: Pacific climate finance from the multilateral climate funds (commitments, in US$ million)

Watch an SEI side-event on Pacific climate finance at COP22 (external link to YouTube)

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