Pacific Island nations are at the forefront of climate change impacts and are among the most vulnerable regions globally. They face significant risks due to rising sea levels, increasing storm surges, isolated geographical locations, along a limited capacity to adapt to these changes.

If these threats are not addressed promptly and effectively, many already limited land areas in these vulnerable nations may soon become uninhabitable, forcing communities to relocate. Implementing sustainable and robust climate adaptation and mitigation strategies is urgently needed to ensure the resilience and safety of these communities against the impacts of climate change.

Fortunately, many international and multilateral organisations and institutions are helping island nations address the impacts of climate change. One such institution is the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), which provides large-scale, low-cost, long-term financing.

CIF’s competitive financing enables lower-income and vulnerable countries to transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient development while attracting additional capital inflow from investors. For example, every dollar invested generates approximately $8 in co-financing. This approach enables piloting new technologies, scaling up tested solutions, and accelerating climate adaptation, mitigation, resilience, and sustainability in these vulnerable communities, resulting in long-term benefits.

The CIF has highlighted transformational climate adaptation and mitigation projects in some of the most climate-vulnerable countries, such as Samoa, Tonga, and Papua New Guinea, through its Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) since 2009.

The programme has provided a total of nearly US$90 million over 13 years, attracting additional co-financing of almost US$40 million from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has bolstered climate resilience and disaster preparedness in these most climate-vulnerable countries. Often, these financing options provide them with their first significant injection of centralised, scaled-up resilience finance.

A recent stocktake of CIF’s investments in the Pacific includes the following pivotal climate projects:

• Clean water projects that helped communities improve food security by planting drought-resistant crops. More than 140,000 people in Samoa benefited from improvements such as escape roads and cyclone-proof rainwater tanks. 
• Restore degraded watersheds and contribute to a rebound in fish stocks thanks to “no-catch” areas designed to allow reefs to recover in Papua New Guinea. Fishermen reported shorter fishing times, which allowed them to catch larger fish. Support 780 Samoan farmers in replanting 349 hectares of degraded land, which helps mitigate flooding.
• Reinforcing and raising Samoa’s coastal road that links to its main airport. IN Papua New Guinea, a wharf was constructed to withstand extreme weather or other shocks, a first for the country.
• Invested in Tonga’s first automatic weather-monitoring system in 2009 at the cost of US$20 million.

Srinivasan Ancha, Principal Climate Change Specialist at ADB, believes the lessons and successes from these projects can form a “foundation for the future resilience programmes, not only in the Pacific, but also in other parts of the world.” 

Climate change is an existential threat to Pacific Island nations, and they live with its impacts daily. Programmes like the Climate Investment Funds’ Pilot Program for Climate Resilience demonstrate that these projects are pivotal in building the local capacity of these communities to withstand climate change impacts while improving their livelihoods.