Deputy Prime Minister, Carmel Sepuloni, today announced a new $30 million partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) to support its Climate Change Flagship programme.
The Deputy PM said the New Zealand Government was resolutely focused and acting with urgency to help pave the way for evidence-based climate action.
“Climate change knows no borders, it’s a global threat that requires global and collective action,” she said.
“We’re seeing, very clearly, the escalating impacts of climate change here and abroad, and it’s vital that we team up to accelerate action and build resilience, including in one of the world’s most vulnerable areas.
“We are in and of the Pacific, and this partnership with SPC underlines our Pacific-led approach to solving the challenges that our region face — the most pressing among them being climate change.”
Minister Sepuloni said the boost to SPC’s Climate Change Flagship will support it to expand and intensify its climate work, and scale up its technical and scientific support to Pacific countries and territories — speeding up climate action across multiple sectors and making it easier for New Zealand’s Pacific partners to access urgently needed climate finance.
“We recognise that one of the best ways we can help increase our region’s overall resilience is by bolstering the Pacific agencies which are delivering to Pacific communities. These Pacific agencies offer local and indigenous-led solutions that are key to unlocking effective climate action in a changing environment.”
“The partnership with SPC will go some way to helping ensure we’re protecting people’s health, food security, biodiversity and livelihoods, which are under threat in the Pacific.
“Aotearoa New Zealand supports the development priorities of our Pacific partners at all levels: on the ground, directly with Pacific governments, in the region, and in the world. This is how we can be stronger across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa — by joining our strengths together,” she said.
The partnership announcement was made in Tonga, at a coastal replanting project being delivered by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC), in an area hit hard by the tsunami following the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption, in January last year.
