Minister with responsibility for the environment Matthew Samuda has appealed to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to explore the concept of a special allocation for small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs) to address related environmental and climate change challenges.

Addressing the XXIII Meeting of the Forum of Ministers of the Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean in Panama on Wednesday, Samuda noted that the goal of US$100 billion per year by 2020, formally agreed by the advanced economies/developed countries, was never achieved.

He charged that the funding available to meet existing and expected climate challenges is inadequate and limited.

“The existing financing mechanism must be sufficiently amenable to the needs of developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the objectives of international agreements.

“The access to funding facilities to tackle climate change is often hindered by an irrational need for the justification of the vulnerability of SIDS and LDCs as…it should now be extremely clear for the world to see how climate change threatens our very existence. The inhibitions and delays to access the funding need to be removed,” said Samuda.

“Our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean, and more broadly the small island developing states and low-lying countries, continue to be faced with the harsh reminder that climate change is real and the impacts far-reaching.

“Our impact from, and exposure to, climate and weather extremes such as increased drought conditions, periods of intense rainfall and stronger storms, and to slow onset events such as sea level rise and increasingly high temperatures threaten our path of success to meet goals of sustainable development towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient society,” added Samuda.

He told the high-level forum that with Jamaica’s ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2017, the country continues to increase its ambition to meet the objectives of this global agreement, but the ability to access much-needed funding to undertake the tremendous national responsibilities to protect lives and livelihoods is important.

Samuda pointed out that despite the issues with the global financial architecture, Jamaica recently engaged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement for US$764 million.

“Reforms in the RSF, build on Jamaica’s home-grown climate policy, were prepared in close collaboration with the World Bank and other international partners. They create incentives to switch to renewables, reduce energy consumption, develop green financial instruments, and require proper management of climate risks in the financial sector.

“Reforms are expected to catalyse private and official financing for climate-related investment,” said Samuda as he noted that a three-pronged approach, including a more resilient infrastructure through low-cost, lone-term loans, is being used to deploy this capital from the IMF.

“It is impatient of debate that the global financial architecture and mechanisms must change,” declared Samuda.

Among the changes proposed by Samuda are an increase in the level of grant financing made available to SIDS; a significant reduction in the time for countries seeking accreditation to access climate funds under the GCF; and a dedicated SIDS envelope under the GCF’s Enhanced Direct Access pilot that would provide a short- to medium-term solution for a dedicated financing mechanism for SIDS as it builds off the existing climate finance architecture.

Samuda also called for a programmatic and predictable stream of funds to address the underlying determinants of vulnerability and to finance new development paradigms to turn some of the vulnerabilities among SIDS into strengths.