Analysis - Getting agreement on who will pay for the devastation climate change will bring is a major issue at the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow.
Damage in Fiji caused by Tropical Cyclone Ana. Photo: Fiji government
Pacific Studies and climate security expert Dr Steven Ratuva says the region is responsible for just a fraction of warming, but already bares the brunt of the damage.
"Frequent cyclones and other climatic calamities, sea level rise, erosion, and the damage caused to the reefs and the marine ecosystem.
"There's so much that needs to be addressed and finance is very very important, in fact it's top of the list."
India gets much of its electricity from coal, but at COP it pledged to become net-zero by 2070 and needs finance to get there.
Alex Johnston from Oxfam says it is a good example to why getting an agreement to radically increase climate finance is so important.
"They're one of the biggest countries in the world, [their] emissions profile is growing ... so they really need the finance in order to stop adding new coal supply and be able to meet the energy needs for their population."
Mitigation and adaptation
There are a number of threads to the finance talks at COP26.
First, there is money pledged to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been promised in Glasgow - though that's far short of what many think is fair.
RNZ understands that in the COP negotiation rooms, rich countries are objecting to demands to double adaptation funding.
New Zealand has been arguing it already pays its fair share in the region. Last month it quadrupled its climate aid fund to $1.3 billion over four years of which half will go to the Pacific.
Dr Steven Ratuva says earmarks and bureaucracy make make it hard for Pacific countries to actually get their hands on the cash.
"They don't give the money directly to countries ... accusations of racism, accusations of distrust, and ... inequality come in."
Steven Ratuva says much of the money ends up in the pockets of contractors from outside the region brought in to do the work.
Loss and damage
Meanwhile, debate rages about the more permanent impacts of climate change - known at COP26 as 'loss and damage'.
Alex Johnston says a major breakthrough at COP happened when Scotland became the first country to commit cash explicitly towards it.
Developing countries want compensation for loss and damage over and above pledges on mitigation and adaptation.
But Alex Johnston says developed countries fear huge financial liability.
"The scale of climate impacts and the economic cost of that are huge.
"And so to open up potential responsibility to say 'we need to compensate or support countries to recover the economic loss that they've experienced', potentially opens up a pretty big chequebook for countries on top of the adaptation funds that they're being asked for."
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme Director General Kosi Latu says developed countries want to treat mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage as the same issue, but he says they are not.
Positive indications there's movement on new finance pledge
Kosi Latu says all these pledges need to translate into real action.
And a key tension at COP26 is the failure of rich countries to follow through on their finance goal to give 100 billion US dollars in climate aid a year for five years from 2020.
RNZ sources observing negotiations in Glasgow say rich countries now appear at least open to establishing a working group to come up with a new finance goal for 2025 to 2030.
If developed countries do agree to a group being formed it indicates they are starting to take it more seriously, as the finance goal has previously only been one line item among many on the agenda.
It is important because poor countries say the goal needs to upped north of a trillion dollars a year to meet the scope of what's needed.
However, rich countries say it is too soon to put a figure on anything.
COP26 is slated to end early Saturday morning New Zealand time, but it is looking increasingly like it will stretch at least a day longer.
