It took the Pacific nations five years to gain access to the Climate Fund
Brown (Cook Islands) proposed a ‘timer’ at the Pre-COP to put pressure on countries that are not paying their share of the funding
More than $5 billion of climate finance earmarked for the Pacific remains to be disbursed, out of over $16 billion pledged since 2015. This figure covers all climate finance, not just adaptation, and does not mean that every sum has expired. However, it measures the gap between commitments and the resources that have actually reached the ground. At COP31 in Antalya, from 9 to 20 November, the Pacific will call for this gap to be bridged: how much of what was promised has actually been paid out?
Pre-COP: simplifying funding
At the Pre-COP, Australia presented a plan to simplify access to funding. Mark Brown, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, called for ‘putting a timer on access’: funders should publish decision-making times, explain any delays and specify how long it takes from application to the first disbursement. And this count must also include pending applications, not just those that have been approved.
The IMF estimates that the climate adaptation needs of the Pacific island nations amount to 3.3 billion dollars a year, at 2024 prices. In the latest available regional comparison, covering 2021–2023, disbursements are estimated at around 900 million per year: 26 per cent of what is needed. This is, of course, an estimate, as there is no comprehensive reporting on climate finance payments. This gap shows that simply mobilising resources is not enough: they must be transformed into operational funding.
The Climate Fund
One example is the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the multilateral fund that finances climate projects in developing countries. To help 14 Pacific countries adapt their tuna fishing-based economies to climate change, the Fund received an initial project note in June 2019 and the full proposal in April 2024. The project was approved in February 2025; the first disbursement, of $16 million, was made in September 2025. The project is worth $157 million, of which $107.4 million is to be provided by the GCF. Almost five years elapsed between the project outline and the proposal, including the design phase.
The GCF Board is meeting from 26 to 29 October in Songdo, South Korea, to review projects and accreditations, and to discuss a common framework for measuring and reporting on results. At COP31, the Pacific is calling strongly for checks not only on how much funding is pledged, but also on when it arrives and what actions it enables.
