The Canadian government has announced a C$9.5million (approx. $FJD$15.3m) contribution to the Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN).
Through the Climate Finance Access Network (CFAN), Pacific countries will be able seek funds to develop specialist skills and expertise to work with governments in accessing climate finance.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made this announcement during a virtual meeting at the United Nations.
Mr Trudeau was quoted saying in a Fijian Government’s statement issued today that “small countries had limited capacity to navigate the complex world of climate finance”.
“They often lacked the dedicated technical support needed to develop projects through to their implementation stages,” he said.
The statement said that Fiji’s Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Mr Trudeau had discussed those challenges during their virtual meeting a fortnight ago.
Mr Trudeau said Canada had partnered with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a leading climate innovator and a grouping of like-minded actors in coming together to identify concrete solutions for action under a CFAN initiative.
He said the funding support was designed through a highly-inclusive process involving consultations with more than 50 developing nations.
“CFAN will help empower SIDS to chart their own course in securing climate finance more quickly and effectively.
“This network will deploy highly-trained climate finance advisors dedicated to securing climate financing for priority investments in climate resilience and energy transition.
“These advisors will help countries and also work as a team, making sure that what we learn in one nation in structuring critical investments can be quickly applied to others around the world.”
The Fijian Government said the financial support for this initiative would help train 30 climate finance advisors a year and deploy 12 experts to the capitals of some the most climate-vulnerable nations, notably the Pacific small-island developing states, for a one to two year assignment.
In welcoming the announcement, Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Satyendra Prasad said that “accessing climate funds – especially from the private sector remains a steep challenge for many Pacific island states”.
“The investment requirements of the private sector require different sets of skills in Government agencies,” Mr Prasad said.
“… Without a strong blend of private and public sector investments, many Pacific states are unlikely to achieve their ambitious climate action targets. This support by Canada is a crucial investment in human resource and capacity that is needed to overcome this complex challenges.”
