High tides in Marshall Islands in March 2016 hit a seawall Photo: RNZI/Giff Johnson
The Small Island States of the Pacific Islands Forum have adopted a new climate change strategy to ensure their vulnerabilities are addressed as part of the regional policy agenda.
The strategy was agreed to by leaders from the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu at a meeting last week in Palau.
The Forum Secretariat's Development Co-operation Advisor, Alfred Schuster, says addressing climate change is one of the top priorities of the strategy.
He says the Small Island States want to band together when applying for climate change mitigation funding from the United Nations.
"It'll be a new approach, from what we understand a joint proposal of countries and governments hasn't yet been brought to the attention of the Green Climate Fund. But we'd like to think it's a much more strategic way in light of the administrative burden and administrative requirements of the Green Climate Fund to generate the sort of revenue that's required by the SIS."
The Forum Secretariat's Alfred Schuster.
