PRIME Minister James Marape participated with various Pacific Islands Forum Leaders and representatives of Global Financial Institutions and the Private Sector in the Pacific Regional Commonwealth Leader’s Virtual Roundtable Chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Charles on the evening of Thursday May 20, 2021 from his Office at the 10th Floor Sir Manasupe Haus.
The theme of the meeting was “Accelerating Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development”.
Other Pacific Leaders that participated in this Roundtable included Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, Prime Minister Bob Loughman of Vanuatu and Prime Minister Kausea Natano of Tuvalu.
Lord Goldsmith, Minister for Pacific and the Environment of the United Kingdom also participated and reiterated his government’s continued commitment and support for climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives in the Pacific, and for the Private Sector and Pacific Governments to ramp up and align their efforts to address these matters.
Discussions at this Virtual Roundtable were focused on the green recovery, tackling climate change and biodiversity, accelerating actions on economic recovery and on the sustainable agenda of biodiversity, green economic growth and markets.
The Private Sector Representatives in their interventions spoke of the need to effectively leverage support and ensure Pacific Governments are appropriately resourced to draw-down on the huge financial commitments provided by organizations such as the Global Environment Fund.
Representatives from the Private Sector emphasized the immediate need to create a template to get bankable projects on mitigation and adaptation implemented. They further advised that investments and climate change projects should be executed on a standardized basis where there was less risk for the investors.
Baroness Patricia Scotland, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat in her interventions applauded the Roundtable and acknowledged the discussions on alignment between the member countries and the Private Sector in identifying strategies to meaningfully and practically address climate variation.
In terms of the draw-down of Global Climate Funds, the Secretary General also informed the Roundtable of the Commonwealth Climate Fund Access Hub, which member countries can utilize.
The Pacific Leaders in their discussions highlighted their economic recovery programs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and their ongoing country initiatives on addressing and managing environment conservation and climate change. In doing so, they also informed of the difficulties they were confronted with in effectively accessing global climate funds.
Prime Minister Marape in adding his voice, stressed that: “Pacific Island Countries (PIC’s) contribution of Green-House Gases (GHGs), globally are insignificant. It’s no fault of ours, yet Global Environment Conventions such as the Paris Agreement dictate that we in the Pacific must reduce GHGs.”
Prime Minister Marape, thanked Prince Charles for his ongoing international efforts to assist PIC’s including PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu and Tuvalu in their collective efforts against climate change and environmental degradation.
To rally global support for the PIC’s climate change agenda, Prime Minister Marape made a bold appeal to the Prince of Wales to be the Chief Advocator for the Pacific on Climate Change, given his international standing, reputation and ability to influence global development assistance.
In closing the meeting, Prince Charles acknowledged Prime Minister Marape’s challenge, and agreed to take on the role as Chief Advocator for the Pacific Region and urged all participants to take on climate change projects with urgency and purpose.
“The issue here is not the lack of capital, but the ability to communicate our projects,” he said.
His Royal Highness also informed that his Team would develop a Summary of Actions of all the Roundtables that he had convened to date in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific to ensure proper alignment and synergy with the Global Financiers and Private Sector to ensure projects were bankable and investible to create a better environment for the future generations.
He also requested from each participating Government, information on focal points of contact to support his Team’s efforts in climate change mitigation and that this information be communicated to his Team at the earliest.