COP30 CCMP Reporting Fellow
Solomon Islands has renewed its call for global partners to fully support and capitalize the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), a landmark Pacific-led, owned, and managed funding mechanism to strengthen regional resilience to climate change and disasters.
Delivering remarks in Belem, Brazil this morning, on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology, Polycarp Paea, Climate Change Division Director Thaddeus Siota said the PRF reflects the Pacific’s united determination to take charge of its own climate future.
“The PRF epitomises our theme ‘Iumi Tugeda: Act Now for an Integrated Blue Pacific Continent’,” Siota said.
“As a collective, we are building our resilience through a facility owned and managed by Pacific people,” he told delegates at the Pacific Resilience Facility Partner Roundtable Tok Stori at COP30.
The facility, endorsed by 15 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders during the 54th Forum hosted in Honiara earlier this year, is a cornerstone of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
It aims to provide faster, debt-free, and community-focused financing for adaptation and disaster preparedness projects across the region.
“This is a paradigm shift, from aid dependency to sustainable investment,” Siota said.
“We want a climate financing model that empowers communities without creating debt, and delivers long-term ecological and intergenerational returns.”
The PRF Treaty is expected to enter into force by early 2026, with the first funding proposals to be launched before COP30, and the first grants to roll out in 2027.
“We call on all partners to stand with the Pacific and make this vision a reality. Iumi tugeda, act now!” Siota said.
Last week, in Koror, Palau, the Ministers adopted the Koror Declaration, a renewed pledge to strengthen disaster preparedness and climate adaptation in a region increasingly battered by cyclones, droughts, sea-level rise, and other climate-driven crises.
This story was produced as part of the COP30 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
