BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
SOLOMON Islands is one of the countries in the Pacific that has accessed the green climate fund.
Exsley Taloiburi Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Programme Adviser Climate Finance and Resilience Team Leader says the Green Climate Fund works through accredited implementing entities.
He said there is potential for the Pacific Resilience Facility to consider serving as a regional conduit in the medium to long term. And in, before they could do that they need to be established. The PRF needs to be established and also have at least two to three years of operation so that they can show evidence of their relevant policies and so forth.
He said Tina River Hydro project in Solomon Islands is funded mainly by the Green Climate Fund.
“Green Climate Fund provide USD86m for Tina River Hydro-power project 70M in a form of loan and 16M in a form of grants and they co-finance it with other development partners,” Taloiburi said.
He also said there is a need that private sector should be involved as they are ones that can create employment as governments alone cannot do things alone in addressing climate change.
“We are working closely with the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce Industries and their members on how they could benefit from funding opportunities that is available.
“Because when cyclone and disasters coming businesses are also affected and had impacted on people working inside those businesses, Taloiburi said.
He said studies have shown if you invest $1, in preparedness, it saves up to $7 of, of recovery post disaster, if you do a cost benefit analysis, there is a clear case that you invest in preparedness. That means it saves a lot of money for recovery efforts.
“If you do not prepare in advance for these disasters that are occurring, what the science is telling us that we are, it would be the new normal, we would see a lot of frequent and more severe disasters facing our region from now, until 2014,” Taloiburi said.
