Climate Finance Flows in the Pacific

Ms. Ilona Millar, special counsel in the Environmental Markets team at Baker McKenzie, Sydney, briefly explained the concept of climate finance and discussed about climate finance flows in the Pacific. In 2010–2014, climate finance to Pacific Island countries totaled $1,762 million, of which $1,455 million came from bilateral sources and $307 million from multilateral sources. Likewise, of this amount, $748 million had climate change as the main objective while $1,014 million targeted climate change as a co-benefit. She also specified how much each Pacific country received and how the money was split among various sectors, including enabling environment, renewable energy, research, disaster prevention and preparedness, multi-sector aid, road infrastructure and vehicles, water supply and sanitation, biodiversity protection, irrigation, and capacity-building. She also touched on legal readiness for climate finance as a catalyst for facilitating a country’s access to climate finance.