Deputy Prime Minister and Finance, Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics Minister Professor Biman Prasad highlighted in his Ministerial statement that the government acknowledges the importance of engaging in multilateral processes such as the climate change Conference of Parties to ensure that our voices are heard and the challenges we face are recognised and addressed.

“We were very well prepared this year. Led by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, with support from the Ministry of Finance, we organised technical working group meetings, prepared well-consulted policy briefs, developed a communications strategy, and held pre-departure delegation briefings for both ministers and government officials.”

Fiji took a 57-member delegation to COP. 90% of the delegates were fully funded by external partners and through funding arrangements in place annually to support small island state participation in these critical meetings. 

The total cost of COP29 engagement to Government was FJD$239,000.

The Deputy Prime Minister added that this year, Fiji identified 14 priority thematic engagement areas, including climate finance, loss and damage, oceans, mitigation, adaptation, indigenous peoples and local communities and gender, to name a few.

“Addressing the climate crisis is not just crucial for our environment; it is crucial for protecting the lives and livelihoods of Fijian people and protecting the stability and growth of our economy. To be able to respond effectively to the scale of the challenges we face as a small island state, we need to access predictable and adequate climate financing.”

Professor Prasad says the final COP29 decision on the new quantified collective goal calls for climate financing from all public and private sources to reach USD $1.3 trillion per year by 2035. 

Within that goal is the commitment to ensure developing countries take the lead on providing $300 billion USD per year by 2035.