Pacific Island climate officials are calling on the global community to streamline climate finance systems, warning that current bureaucratic delays are leaving vulnerable communities without timely support as climate change impacts intensify.
This message came during the SPREP Loss and Damage Media Workshop held in Apia, Samoa, where experts from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) highlighted ongoing challenges in accessing vital funding to address loss and damage—the term used to describe irreversible climate impacts such as sea-level rise, cultural losses, and extreme weather.
“We didn’t cause climate change in our region, but we’re suffering,” said Filomena Nelson, SPREP’s Adaptation Advisor. “By the time these project proposals are approved, the impacts have changed—and in some cases, gotten worse.”
Nelson noted that many Pacific nations lack the staffing and resources needed to meet the complex requirements of global climate funds like the Green Climate Fund (GCF). She cited the Cook Islands, which submitted a climate-health proposal in 2017 that wasn’t approved until 2023—a six-year delay.
“Even the systems and policies within these funding mechanisms are so complex. There’s a lot of bureaucracy. And we continue to suffer,” Nelson said.
She also spoke to the broader political obstacles, pointing out how donor countries’ reluctance to fully fund developing nations—partly due to geopolitical dynamics—adds to the delays. “Our future, our plight, is in the hands of lawyers who are talking and debating semantics,” she said.
Jessica Rodham, SPREP’s Climate Change Loss and Damage Officer, said these delays must be addressed as part of the ongoing design of the Loss and Damage Fund, which was launched at COP28.
“It needs to be less process-heavy so the Pacific can actually access these funds in a shorter amount of time,” she said. SPREP is currently working to prepare Pacific Island countries to access the fund by helping them develop pilot projects and project concepts under the Loss and Damage Capacity Agreement.
The issue of language was also raised during the workshop, with Nelson highlighting how wording such as “addressing” loss and damage—rather than “compensating” or “being liable”—is often used to avoid legal or financial responsibility.
Facilitator Sosikeni Lesa reminded participants that behind the funding debates are real stories of Pacific communities facing climate loss: “This is not something that is happening to us—it’s your story.”
The three-day workshop brought together journalists, media officers, and climate practitioners to strengthen regional reporting on loss and damage, helping to raise awareness and bring the voices of frontline communities into the global climate conversation.
