The Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum yesterday explained ways Fiji could gain access to climate financing.
He said this after a question was posed by Government MP Matai Akauola in Parliament on the issue.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum in his response said climate finance actually equated development finance.
He said that any matter that had to do with the adaptation, in particular, for countries like Fiji with a low carbon foot print, was actually a development issue.
Adaptation, he said meant taking action to manage risks from damage.
Climate funding, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said was seen as development funding.
To access such funds, he said building resilience to disasters meant having systems in place and infrastructure in place that doesn’t get affected by climatic events.
For example, during Tropical Cyclone Winston, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said around 6000 kilometres of electric cables were destroyed.
He said the cables were fixed, however, if another cyclone struck Fiji, it would have to be fixed again if destroyed.
This is why it is important to have the infrastructure in place that was adaptive to climate change.
Mr Sayed-Kaiyum said there were numerous funding sources – it could come from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank or the Green Climate Fund which was based in Korea.
Fiji, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, said was the first country to access the Green Climate Fund for the adaptation purposes for the Suva-Nausori Water Ward System worth around $300 million.
This project would be implemented within a four-year period.
He said of the $300 million, $32 million would come in by way of grant from the fund.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said they were yet to draw the funds from an approved credited agency which is the Asian Development Bank.
He said they would go to ADB to get the grant of $32 million and a master agreement would be done in the next few weeks to draw the funds.
Edited by Caroline Ratucadra
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