Kiribati will ask Pacific leaders and COP31 to create a climate finance window that reimburses small island states after they build urgent protection works, according to an article published on the Devpolicy Blog.
The article was written by Ruth Cross Kwansing, Kiribati's Minister for Women, Youth, Sport and Social Affairs. She is the Pacific Islands Forum Political Champion for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion and represents the Pacific on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
A very strong El Niño declared across the Pacific in June is compounding sea-level rise in the central Pacific and driving extreme king tides, coastal erosion and storm surges that sweep into homes and maneaba, destroying food crops and wells, Cross Kwansing wrote.
Most land in Kiribati is no more than two metres above sea level, so families have no high ground to retreat to, she said. Saltwater breaches shallow wells and poisons the underground freshwater lenses people depend on.
Families are already moving houses back from the shore and rebuilding wells while international climate finance moves through lengthy procedures, according to the article. Kiribati's engagement with the Green Climate Fund readiness process has stretched over nearly a decade.
Cross Kwansing said Kiribati welcomes the Green Climate Fund's new nine-month approval target, but that for frontline coral atolls climate finance delayed is protection denied.
Multilateral climate finance operates almost entirely on an ex-ante, or upfront, approval model, she wrote. Before money is released to fortify an eroding coastal bund, raise a causeway or install emergency desalination, governments must work through multi-year feasibility studies, baseline analyses and accreditation processes.
Women, young children, older people and people with disabilities in remote outer islands carry the heaviest load when approvals are slow, she said. When king tides breach village barriers, women must walk farther across flooded ground for drinking water and carers must carry relatives over submerged causeways.
Kiribati proposes a dedicated Ex-Post Reimbursement Window linked to a vulnerability-informed access gateway within existing funds such as the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, for presentation at Pre-COP31 in Fiji, the leaders' event in Tuvalu from 5 to 8 October and at COP31.
Under the proposal, a qualifying government facing acute hazards would fund urgent works upfront from national contingency reserves or a short-term concessional bridge facility, drawing on an agreed list of coastal defences, saltwater intrusion barriers, water security infrastructure and climate-proofed shelters.
A regional direct access entity such as the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme or the Pacific Community would then audit the works on site, with reimbursement proposed within 90 days of a verified claim, according to the article. The 90-day period and the list of works are a starting point for discussion, Cross Kwansing wrote.
Access would be limited by a vulnerability index covering physical exposure, economic structure and social exposure, drawing on the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index adopted by the UN General Assembly in August 2024. The index could be applied below the national level, she said, so that outer islands hidden in national averages are counted.
Kiribati is asking partners for in-principle support in the Forum leaders' communiqué from Tuvalu, for Pacific representatives on the Green Climate Fund Board to table a pilot, and for backing through the Alliance of Small Island States and, where appropriate, the Least Developed Countries Group.