Pacific leaders have made a passionate plea for help as climate change threatens some of the world’s smallest nations.
Countries on the climate crisis frontline have called for investment and partnerships to build resilient infrastructure at a packed Pacific conference on Wednesday.
“Give us the resources. Give us the tools so we can manage our future,” Cook Islands Deputy Prime Minister Albert Nicholas said.
Nations have already benefited at the Pacific Infrastructure Conference in Brisbane, with Australia confirming it would extend direct flights to Palau for another year.
While tourism provided a spark, Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr said building quality infrastructure would be the region’s priority amid the climate change threat.
However he warned they couldn’t afford any more loans after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our goal is to really transform our economy, to strengthen the resilience, the connectivity and the security of our entire blue Pacific,” he told more than 500 delegates at the conference.
“But … we really can’t take more money out to build infrastructure through loans.
“We need partners … it’s through those partnerships that we are able to have this aggressive approach to infrastructure development.”
Australia’s Pacific Island Affairs Minister Pat Conroy told the conference quality and resilient infrastructure would help combat the climate change threat.
Australia has committed almost $2 billion to 56 projects across 11 nations in the region through the Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.
The commonwealth has also established a $350 million Pacific climate infrastructure financing partnership.
Mr Conroy had earlier confirmed sustained flights from Brisbane to the tiny nation of Palau through to 2026, with the more than 4000km route continuing with Qantas.
“Pacific leaders have rightly declared climate change is the number one threat to the security of their people,” he told the conference.
Mr Whipps Jr said ensuring quality infrastructure projects would benefit the region’s residents and economies as they combat the climate change threat.
“When we invest in projects that improve climate resilience, create jobs, enable trade, we do not just advance one’s nation’s development, we lift the prospects of our region as a whole,” he said.
Mr Nicholas said there was an obvious shortfall between Cook Islands’ budget and the level of ambition for infrastructure development.
He hoped development partners and international private capital could help make it a reality for the Cook Islands.
“In delivering infrastructure development, our experience is that the one-size-fits-all approach to procurement perhaps does not suit our scale,” he told the conference on Wednesday.
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