Commonwealth leaders have committed to strengthening
climate finance, as Pacific Island countries in Commonwealth
called for urgent action to address growing economic
pressures they face due to climate change.
Pac News
reports that the commitments were outlined in the 2026
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)
communiqué, adopted at the conclusion of the four-day
summit in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda.
The
communiqué, agreed by leaders of the 56-member
Commonwealth, recognises the growing challenges facing small
island developing states (SIDS), including climate change,
limited access to finance, economic uncertainty and
vulnerability to external shocks.
Earlier, Samoa’s top
representative at the summit, the country’s deputy prime
minister Mulipola Anarosa Ale Molio’o called for urgent
reforms to international climate finance.
Pac News
reports her warning that Pacific countries should not be
forced into debt to recover from climate disasters they did
little to cause.
Mulipola also urged Commonwealth
leaders to heed the calls from recent Pacific Pre-COP
discussions in Fiji and Tuvalu for accessible, predictable,
and grant-based climate finance.
Debt
pressure
Fiji’s special envoy Ratu Inoke Kubuabola
warned delegates that reliance on loans is adding to their
debt pressure for climate-vulnerable nations like those in
the Pacific.
Addressing CHOGM, under the theme
‘Scaling Up Partnerships and Investment for Resilient Small
States’, Kubuabola highlighted the growing financial
challenges facing SIDS.
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According to him, nearly 40
percent of SIDS are either experiencing debt distress or at
high risk of debt distress, while 44 per cent of adaptation
financing continues to be delivered through
loans.
Kubuabola said small states needed practical
financing solutions that would improve access to affordable
development and climate finance without increasing their
debt burdens.
He highlighted Fiji’s experience in this
area, including becoming the first developing country to
issue a sovereign green bond and the first Pacific country
to issue a sovereign blue bond.
Fiji
has reaffirmed its US$10 million commitment to the Pacific
Resilience Facility, a Pacific-led financing mechanism
designed to provide grants directly to
communities.
Kubuabola called on Commonwealth members
to increase their support for the facility, which aims to
strengthen community resilience without adding to national
debt.
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