COP29 finance must deliver - Tonga PM

Taking the planet's temperature will tell us that the Earth has a fever, and it is very sick, Tonga's Prime Minister and chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni warns.

Hu'akavameiliku says he first read those words from Pope Francis, the global leader of the Roman Catholic Church's statement to the PIF leaders, donor partners, and officials at the forum leaders meeting in Nuku'alofa in September.

The Pacific island Kingdom of Tonga was battered by floods last month. Photo/Manoa Media

In an op-ed, Hu'akavameiliku says that at the Tonga summit, leaders reaffirmed that the climate change crisis was an existential threat to our people, homes, and livelihoods.

Hu'akavameiliku's comments come as the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or COP29 enters its fourth day in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan can be considered a part of more than one continent. It is located in western Asia and eastern Europe and can be considered part of the Middle East. It borders Russia on its north, Georgia on its northwest, Armenia on its west, and Iran to its south.

More than 40,000 people from across the world are attending the COP29 meeting from 11-22 November.

United Nations (UN) Secretary General, António Guterres, who attended the forum leaders' meeting in Tonga said the climate crisis was "a crazy situation".

"Rising seas are a crisis entirely of humanity's making, a crisis that will soon swell to an almost unimaginable scale, with no lifeboat to take us back to safety. But if we save the Pacific, we also save ourselves," Guterres said.

Hu'akavameiliku says climate change has impacted everyone around the world.

"But it is the Pacific communities that have been unfairly placed on the front line of this escalating crisis where they continue to experience the 'lived reality' of climate change, every day.

"While leaders gathered in Nukualofa, torrential rain and a 6.9 magnitude earthquake shook the place, as if it was a sign from above.

"Naturally, our guests became quite alarmed, and I remember being asked by a reporter for a comment, to which I responded: We put on a show with the rain and bit of flooding, and also shake you guys up a little bit by that earthquake, just to wake you up to the reality of what we have to face here in the Pacific, you know, natural disasters like that."

Antonio Guterres says climate change is a "crazy situation". Photo/UN

He says Pacific people are resilient and humour is part of their resilience.

"It has gotten us through the toughest of times. Here in Tonga, our people have battled and survived countless extreme natural disaster events.

"The scars from the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami, are still very fresh. Tonga, like every Pacific country, has a story to tell.

"With cyclones, earthquakes, flooding, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, storm surges, droughts, and tsunamis, amongst other calamities, we don't need a thermometer to know the very confronting and frightening reality that the earth has a fever, and is sick indeed."

The Tongan leader welcomed the calls from Pope Francis and Guterres for urgent action on climate change.

He says the calls resonate with all Pacific countries especially as the world gathers for the COP29 in Azerbaijan.

Pacific climate change negotiators and officials are set to continue to fight for the survival of their communities who are at the forefront of climate change impacts. Photo/Kike Calvo

"Every COP is an important opportunity for international collaboration on climate change.

"We note that COP29 will have a particular focus on how to make finance available to developing countries for climate action.

"A key item on the agenda is what is referred to as the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on Climate Finance.

"We expect this to be a very contentious issue, but this will not be surprising. Climate finance always has and will continue to be one of the thorniest issues at these negotiations," Hu'akavameiliku wrote.

The World Health Organisation's director-general for the Pacific, Dr Saia Ma'u Piukala, said on Monday that solving the climate crisis was not only a question of politics.

He warned that climate change presented a fundamental threat to human health.

It is our moral obligation, he told Pacific Mornings.

For Tonga and other Pacific countries, the argument is simple, Hu'akavameiliku says.

"Pacific communities are the least responsible for climate change. The countries responsible for this crisis must front up and take responsibility.

"COP29 as a 'finance COP' must deliver and the NCQG to be agreed to in Baku will need to reflect our Pacific needs and priorities to simplify policy requirements to access the needed financial support to address our region's vulnerabilities.

"The NCQG must ensure that SIDS can access sufficient, predictable, grants-based climate finance to address their climate change needs and priorities.

"Reflecting SIDS special circumstances, as recognised in the Paris Agreement Article 9.4 and 9.9, these climate finance mechanisms should be scalable, contextual, flexible, predictable, innovative, and demand-driven. The NCQG is critical to the work to keep 1.5 alive."

The Pacific Delegation Office at COP29 is a partnership with the New Zealand Government and Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Photo/SPREP

The Tongan prime minister says Pacific countries continue to work proactively with their development and donor partners to help themselves.

He says a key strategy is doing this is through the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), the Pacific's way of responding to an overly complicated global financial system struggling to deliver equitable access to climate finance.

"To help build the resilience of our vulnerable communities, the PRF aims to raise US$500 million by the end of 2025 and be ready to deliver for Pacific communities in 2026.

"Our long-term target is US$1.5 billion. It may be modest in comparison to the real quantum of adaptation, but we cannot wait for the world to address the root causes of climate change.

"As chair of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, I call on all world leaders to turn words into meaningful action at COP29.

"We must seize the moment in Baku to deliver, otherwise the Earth's fever, as His Holiness Pope aptly warned, could turn into pneumonia, or something worse."