[Source: Ministry of Environment & Climate Change]

Fiji needs $1-2 billion annually to meet its climate finance needs, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad said at COP29.

Speaking in Baku, Azerbaijan, Prof Prasad issued an urgent appeal for stronger global support to address the escalating climate impacts.

He said that as a small island developing state, Fiji faces a unique set of challenges including rising sea levels, extreme weather events and economic losses.

Recent projections from the Asian Development Bank estimate that climate-related losses could reach 4 percent of Fiji’s GDP by 2100 unless urgent action is taken.

Prof Prasad outlined Fiji’s innovative approaches to finance climate resilience, including the Environment and Climate Adaptation Levy (ECAL), which funds critical work to protect natural resources, lower carbon emissions and adapt infrastructure.

[Source: Ministry of Environment & Climate Change]

Three percent of ECAL proceeds are now allocated to a trust fund to support the relocation of communities threatened by climate change.

He also highlighted Fiji’s pioneering efforts as the first small island state to issue a sovereign green bond and its recent success with a blue bond issuance.

To protect vulnerable smallholder farmers, Fiji has introduced a low-cost parametric insurance product, which recently made payouts following extreme rainfall. However, Prof Prasad stressed that these efforts alone are not enough to meet the scale of the crisis.

He called for a major scaling-up of public-private partnerships, blended finance initiatives and foreign investment to mobilize resources.

While Fiji’s green bond success has shown strong investor interest, Prof Prasad emphasized that global grant-based support is critical, particularly through the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance being discussed at COP29.

Without this, he warned, SIDS like Fiji will struggle to bridge the gap between needs and available resources.

The Pacific region, which is highly vulnerable to climate impacts is watching COP29 closely for solutions. Prof Prasad urged the global community to commit to transformative investments, streamline access to funding, and ensure that efforts move beyond fragmented, project-by-project approaches.

He emphasized that Fiji and other Pacific countries are ready to lead by example, using their small economies as testing grounds for scalable climate innovations but only with meaningful and sustained support from international partners.

Prof Prasad called on COP29 to deliver a clear signal of solidarity and ambitious financial commitments, framing the energy transition as a shared responsibility that must be addressed in the decade ahead.