Pacific Losses Go Far Beyond Money, Climate Champion Tells Regional Symposium

Iliesa Tora
RNZ Pacific senior sports journalist

The Pacific
political champion for loss and damage has told a Pacific
symposium that the region losses from climate impacts go far
beyond money.

Tonga’s Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni
said non-economic losses and damages from the climate crisis
must be recognised in policy and finance.

He was
speaking at the Pacific Symposium on Loss and Damage, which
is part of the pre-COP31 meeting currently being held in
Nadi. Pacific leaders and climate experts have gathered to
discuss Pacific priorities head of the annual UN climate
talks next month.

Hu’akavameiliku, who is a former
Tonga prime minister, said Pacific losses go well beyond
what can be measured, in money, culture, identity, heritage,
biodiversity, health and community connections.

He
said that traditional knowledge must be explicitly
recognised in loss and damage policy and
finance.

“These losses are largely undercounted,” he
told the symposium.

He shared the five key Pacific
messages, which are:

• Pacific losses go far beyond
  money, and non-economic losses and damages must be
  recognized in policy and finance.
• Recognition is not
  enough. Finance must be accessible, adequate, predictable,
  grant-based, and reach the communities without adding to
  national debt.
• Our losses, our solutions, indigenous
  and traditional knowledge and responses must be locally
  led.
• A single methodology cannot capture all Pacific
  losses. Flexible and locally grounded methods are needed,
  consistent enough to build a credible shared regional
  evidence base through the Pacific Loss and Damage
  Outlook.
• Ambitious climate action remains
  fundamental and keeping 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach is
  the best solution to prevent
  loss.

Hu’akavameiliku said what many do not see
hardly receives any financial support, which affects the
whole climate resilience cycle.

“What is not counted
is rarely financed,” he said. “That is why evidence is the
foundation of our case for action and for
finance.”

Hu’akavameiliku pointed to the El Niño
drought now affecting his own island nation, which last
month triggered a fifth payout to Tonga from the Pacific
Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC), as an example of
a Pacific-owned system delivering early money for early
action.

He stressed that insurance is not enough, as
some impacts lie beyond what can be avoided, adapted to or
insured.

The Fund responding to Loss and Damage
received 176 funding requests from 119 countries amounted to
US$2.8 billion.

That is more than 11 times what the
Fund has available.

“Responding to loss and damage is
not a charity,” he said.

“The advisory opinion of the
International Court of Justice, which our region fought for,
confirmed that States have binding obligations on climate
change and breaching them has legal
consequences.

“This is a matter of climate
justice.”

Hu’akavameiliku requested donors and
partners that Pacific countries rally around these five key
messages as one regional voice.

The Pacific’s findings
on economic and non-economic loss and damage will be
presented at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, where Pacific
leaders continue to call for evidence-based finance and
actions to support vulnerable
communities.

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