Kiribati leads the way

IN what could best labelled as an out -of-the-box idea, Kiribati says it won’t sit around waiting for global funds but would instead use its own money to fund climate change adaptation works on the atoll nation. Island president Taneti Maamau unveiled his administration’s climate finance plans at a United Nations conference on disaster risk reduction in Mexico last month.

Key to the funding plan is sourcing concessionary bank loans with the island’s healthy trust funds to be put up as collateral. “Ideally, government will be looking at concessional debt financing with an interest rate of 1 per cent to 2 per cent which will be repaid when climate or adaptation financing are available.

We currently earn about 6 per cent return on our investment,” said President Maamau. “We are also looking at private financing for our adaptation and mitigation measures.

The Pacific Rising Initiative of the Coalition of Atoll Nations Against Climate Change (CANCC) is a public private partnership aimed at securing and mobilising private capital for climate change adaptation and mitigation. 

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