Coral Pasisi Photo: IISD
The director of climate change and sustainability at the principal scientific and technical organisation in the Pacific has dubbed this years' UN Climate Change Conference as "the year of finance".
Pacific leaders are preparing for COP29, which is set to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, next month.
The Pacific Community (SPC) spokesperson, Niue's Coral Pasisi, said reaching an agreement over the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance will be critical.
"So this is really a finance COP. We have to reach an agreement on the new promise," she said.
"The previous promise is US$100 billion per annum made in Copenhagen 14 years ago now, in 2009; and the world has to agree this year on what that new quantified goal is going to be for climate finance.
"Every single activity that we need to bolster our resilience and transition as a region to a low carbon future needs to be funded by climate finance."
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Pasisi said the region couldn't access the money.
"The region only accesses 0.23 percent of that $100 billion per annum goal that was promised 14 years ago," she said.
"We really need to unlock those resources.
"Otherwise we continue to chase and lead from a moral high ground, but can't actually enable the action that's required for islands to build their resilience and sustainability into the future."
Tahir Gozel, from the Tahir Gozel Initiative for Development in Azerbaijan, said the country had signed a deal with Commonwealth of Nations for $10 million in assistance to Commonwealth of Nations Fund for the SIDS (small island developing states).
"I think Azerbaijan decided to work through Commonwealth of Nations. So there was a agreement between them," he said.
"And I think Azerbaijan decided to work through that channel. The other I am not aware. I'm not from the government."
He said his NGO is working with other institutions.
"In COP29 we hope to be partners with Commonwealth and other institutions such as ODI - Overseas Development Institute - in the blue zone area where we have affiliants."
New Zealand repeal on oil and gas
New Zealand has committed to reverse the 2018 ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration, despite warnings from Pacific leaders and information from its own Regulatory Impact Statement.
The unredacted document, first obtained by Newsroom, outlines how a reversal risked "running counter to the Pacific regional and global consensus on transitioning away from fossil fuels", MFAT's advice said.
It passed its first reading in Parliament in September.
When asked about New Zealand's plans around oil and gas exploration, Pasisi said fossil fuels need to be removed from the energy mix.
"We just simply cannot reach that target, stay below 1.5 [degrees Celsius] if fossil fuels continue to be used and expanded across the world," she said.
"Our small island states in the region are amongst the most vulnerable.
"But those impacts are going to happen even in developed countries.
"And I think New Zealand had its fair share of those earlier this year."
She said she knows the transition away from fossil fuels is "difficult", but it has to happen.
In May 2024 New Zealand's resources minister Shane Jones told RNZ the Pacific understood Aotearoa needed reliable energy to generate an economic dividend to then be able to contribute to the Pacific region.
"[New Zealand] keeping the lights on and the hospitals functioning - you can't hold that type of thinking responsible for the tide lapping around Tuvalu. Come on, give us a break," Jones said.
A former Tuvalu prime minister Enele Sopoaga called the comments "daft", "naive" and "completely stupid".
Sopoaga said while the New Zealand government's oil and gas plans show it is concerned about its economy, he is more concerned about the livelihoods and survival of the Tuvalu people.
Sopoaga - who still serves as an MP in Tuvalu - said the climate crisis is the "main enemy".
