Red Tape Keeping Some Island Countries from Climate Funds
- John Vidal
- Oct 18, 2016
- 1 min read
Many small developing countries are so administratively stretched that they cannot fill in all the complex forms needed to access climate money to help them to reduce emissions and adapt to increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels and extreme weather.
Although billions of dollars of climate money is theoretically available, in practice red tape and paperwork makes it is extremely hard and slow to get hold of, says the Commonwealth Secretariat, the central institution of the 53 Commonwealth countries, who are among the hardest hit by climate change.
Fiji’s high commissioner in London, Jitoko Tikolevu, said the process of applying for climate funds was “very cumbersome”. “We need to be trained how to access the money. It’s one thing having it available, it’s another getting access to it.
“We have many climate adaptation projects identified, to move villages and other settlements, but they depend on getting climate money. We know what we need to do, but to do it we need to understand the process,” he said.
Phillip Capper