Small Island Developing States received less than 2 per cent of global climate finance flows while 74 per cent of global climate finance was in the form of loans, says Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
“Limited access to expensive climate finance worsened climate vulnerability amongst developing countries,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
Speaking at the launch of the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance in Glasgow, Scotland, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum stressed the need for programmatic financing that was country-driven and easily accessed.
Fiji had been selected as one of five pioneer countries that would trial the new approach to access to climate finance based on the Taskforce’s Principles and Recommendations.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum also joined other finance ministers this week to discuss that the billions of dollars in public finance be used to leverage the trillions of dollars in private finance needed for climate resilience.
They also discussed how to support developing countries to access that finance.
The United States, the European Commission and the UK also committed to working in partnership with countries to support a green and resilient recovery from COVID-19 and boost investment for clean, green infrastructure in developing countries.
In addition to this, the UK also committed over $1600 million at COP for a package of initiatives to mobilise finance into emerging markets and developing economies, including close to $186 million to expand the UK’s MOBILIST program, which helped to develop new investment products which could be listed on public markets and attract different types of investors.
