Fiji to Receive Fund from NZ for their Climate Change Programs

In our previous post, “Framecad, a Climate Adaptation Platform Partner Rebuilds a School in Fiji,” we shared how the company helped Fiji’s community quickly build resilient school buildings after they were hit by Winston, a Category 5 hurricane in 2016.

Support for Fiji continues through the New Zealand government. New Zealand is giving $2 million to Fiji as a climate change relocation fund (Moir, 2020).

The $2-million fund is from the $150 million climate change fund package that New Zealand earmarked to assist its Pacific Island nation’s neighbours (Moir, 2020).

Moir (2020) shares further information:

• New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said that $98 million worth of projects have already been approved under the package, which is part of at least $300 million in investment intended for climate assistance in the next three years.
• The $2 million assistance will go to the Fiji Trust Fund relocation, a fund to help relocate Fijians affected by climate change. Five communities have been moved already, and 42 more have applied for government support to move.
• New Zealand is the first country to contribute to the Fund after a request from Fijian PM Frank Bainimarama. The funding is hoped to encourage other countries to contribute as well.
• In her speech, New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said that climate change and other problems, such as infectious diseases and transnational crimes, are borderless challenges that demand a collective response (Moir, 2020).

How does climate change affect Fiji?

The COP23 Fiji article “How Fiji is Affected by Climate Change” presents the impacts of climate change on Fiji.

As one of the small island nations in the Pacific Ocean surrounded by ocean waters and with no landmass or physical barriers protecting them against natural disasters exacerbated by climate, it shares the same woes as its neighbouring Pacific island nations.

How Fiji is (n.d) states that islands in Fiji are experiencing the following:

• sea-level rise and salt intrusion that are destroying their crops and staples,
• increased ferocity of coastal floods that made portions of the island uninhabitable,
• rising temperatures are giving rise to food and water-borne diseases and
• Carbon pollution that causes ocean acidification is destroying its coral reefs – affecting its food supplies and economy.

Fiji is still a developing country, and most of its residents depend highly on the land and ocean for their livelihood and economy.  

The country still lacks the resources, sufficiency, and infrastructure to cope with climate change’s challenges.

Any assistance and aid from developed countries and international institutions is a welcome relief to the Pacific Island nations struggling to cope and adapt to climate change.

BACKGROUND PHOTO CREDIT: Suva, Fiji by Maksym Kozlenko – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link. The image has been cropped to suit the website’s requirements.