By Peter Hobson
NADI, Fiji, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Nations including Fiji and Ireland said on Wednesday they were donating about $15 million to a fund to finance climate resilience and adaptation projects in Pacific islands, but pledges remain far below the fund's target.
Pacific islands face acute risks from rising seas and volatile weather but say they struggle to access money from global funds. They are pushing for more donations at the pre-COP climate conference in Fiji.
"This is the moment to invest,"
Mark Brown, prime minister of the Cook Islands, told delegates at the meeting. "Your investment buys us time."
The Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) is owned by island governments and aims to have $500 million after COP31, the UN's flagship forum for coordinating climate action, has wrapped up in November. It ultimately wants $1.5 billion.
Pledges by Fiji, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark on Wednesday took its pot to slightly under $200 million, said PRF CEO Finau Soqo.
Roughly half of that has come from Pacific island governments, New Zealand and Australia, according to the Pacific Islands Forum.
"More is needed now," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "Every investment now will make a difference and mean less cost of remediation tomorrow and in the future."
Albanese was among representatives of 30 countries who on Tuesday visited the tiny atoll nation of Tuvalu, where they saw white sand dredged from the atoll lagoon to create new land that could withstand ever higher tides.
The PRF aims to invest its capital and spend the earnings in what Soqo called a "small grants at scale" model.
Its first two projects - restoration of a mangrove-fringed taro patch farmed by women in Palau and the restoration of a World War Two-era aquifer in the Federated States of Micronesia - were funded in recent months. It has since funded 12 more, she said on Wednesday.
Over time, the PRF hopes to attract private investors alongside government donors, and eventually borrow money on international markets by issuing its own bonds, said Soqo, a former senior banker at ANZ, one of Australia's major banks.
Asked if the PRF would reach its $500 million goal during this year's COP process, Fiji's climate minister Lynda Tabuya said she was optimistic.
"This will be our take to COP31, and we hope our global leaders will come on board to support us."
(Reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Praveen Menon and Lincoln Feast.)
