NZ boosts support for climate action across the Pacific
New Zealand is bolstering its support for the Pacific region’s resilience and collective response to climate change.
“Whenever I meet with those who live on Pacific Islands, climate change is top of their agenda,” said Jacinda Ardern
“That’s why we’ve been working with our Pacific neighbours to support climate adaption and mitigation such as building a desalination plant for water security in Kiribati, mapping out a coastal risk study and plan for Tokelau, helping to improve the management of marine fisheries in Fiji, Tokelau and Kiribati, and creating an electricity roadmap with the Marshall Islands."
“To help deliver on New Zealand’s $300 million global commitment to climate change-related development assistance, $150 million has now been dedicated to a Pacific programme to bolster New Zealand’s climate change support in the region."
The $150m practical package of support includes:
- Providing infrastructure such as water tanks, along with better tools and training to manage droughts, floods and coastal inundation
- Further climate hazard mapping and risk planning
- Customised climate information that will support priority sectors such as agriculture, tourism, health and infrastructure
- More projects to get rid of invasive species that threaten food security. This will boost the resilience of key crops that are also vulnerable to increasingly unpredictable weather driven by climate change
- Improving access to international climate finance through technical assistance
- $5.6m to Tuvalu-specific climate resilience projects, the first of which will be a water storage facility on the island of Vaitupu, along with renewable energy and drought modelling support