Aotearoa New Zealand will boost and accelerate climate action across the Pacific, through a significant new partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) supporting its Climate Change Flagship programme.

“Climate change knows no borders, it’s a global threat that requires global and collective action. We’re seeing, very clearly, the escalating impacts of climate change here and abroad, and it’s vital that we team up to accelerate action and build resilience, including in one of the world’s most vulnerable areas,” Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region), Carmel Sepuloni said.

“The Government is resolutely focused and acting with urgency, helping pave the way for evidence-based climate action, and collaborating to turn the tide of climate change,” Carmel Sepuloni said.

“We are in and of the Pacific, and this partnership with SPC underlines our Pacific-led approach to solving the challenges that our region face — the most pressing among them being climate change.

“This boost to SPC’s Climate Change Flagship will support it to expand and intensify its climate work, and scale up its technical and scientific support to Pacific countries and territories — speeding up climate action across multiple sectors and making it easier for our Pacific partners to access urgently needed climate finance.

“We recognise that one of the best ways we can help increase our region’s overall resilience is by bolstering the Pacific agencies which are delivering to Pacific communities. These Pacific agencies offer local and indigenous-led solutions that are key to unlocking effective climate action in a changing environment.

“The partnership with SPC will go some way to helping ensure we’re protecting people’s health, food security, biodiversity and livelihoods, which are under threat in the Pacific.

“Aotearoa New Zealand supports the development priorities of our Pacific partners at all levels: on the ground, directly with Pacific governments, in the region, and in the world. This is how we can be stronger across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa — by joining our strengths together,” Carmel Sepuloni said.

The NZ$30 million partnership announcement was made in Tonga, at a coastal replanting project being delivered by the Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC), in an area hit hard by the tsunami following the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption, in January 2022.

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