Washington, D.C.
[Remarks as Prepared]
DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR ISOBEL COLEMAN: Good morning. It’s great to join you all here today at Conservation International’s headquarters.
Thank you [M.] Sanjayan, for the hospitality. I want to extend a special welcome to our Pacific Island partners, several of whom I had a chance to meet last week at UNGA and also last night at the State Department’s dinner.
Thank you for traveling here to Washington – we really appreciate the opportunity to hear firsthand about how the U.S. government and American philanthropies can support your work to drive progress for the Blue Pacific Continent during today’s talanoa. And of course, thank you to all of the members of the philanthropic community joining us. Needless to say, without you, the commitments we are working towards would not be possible.
Last week in New York, at the “High-Level Leaders Meeting to Unlock Blue Pacific Prosperity” hosted by the Bezos Earth Fund and the Pacific Community, I heard directly the strong desire to move past talk and onto concrete actions. The $200 million President Biden announced yesterday is a down payment on that commitment to work together for a more secure, democratic and prosperous future.
Nearly half of those resources will come through USAID, where we are fully focused on supporting your efforts to chart a prosperous, inclusive, and sustainable future. We are committed to taking our cue from the people of the Pacific Islands, and demonstrating that we understand the urgency of the moment and the challenges you face.
Chief among those challenges is, of course, the existential threat of climate change. Hundreds of cultures; thousands of communities; centuries of wisdom and Indigenous knowledge, which the rest of the world has only recently started to appreciate as critical for conserving precious, life-sustaining resources – we risk losing all of this and more if we don’t act.
In Fiji alone, the government has identified 600 communities that may be forced to move, with 42 of these communities already at urgent risk of having their homes destroyed. And in Papua New Guinea, a nation that occupies only one percent of the world’s land mass, you host a stunning seven percent of biodiversity in the world. Seven percent! You all know better than I that our future – your future – depends on preserving the ecosystems of the Pacific.
Through partnerships, investment, and innovative solutions, we can work together not only to mitigate future changes, but also to adapt to the challenges you are already facing. Climate adaptation means moving villages to higher ground before they are swallowed by the sea. It means training farmers to grow food while navigating new weather patterns and warmer, saltier waters. And it means investing in better disaster responses so that Pacific Islanders can stay safe when what used to be once-in-a-lifetime typhoons, come once a year.
It is no secret that the United States has contributed significantly to global carbon emissions. So we understand our responsibility to help other countries invest in adapting to today’s climate change. Since 2016, USAID has worked to help communities in the Pacific Islands lead climate adaptation projects.
Through our Climate Ready Program, we spent $24 million – an investment that helped leverage over $500 million in funding for climate adaptation. We’re working with our new Mission in Fiji and our new Regional Mission in Papua New Guinea to see how we can build on this success. And yesterday at this Summit, we announced that we will work with Congress to provide over $93 million in assistance to deliver on the priorities set out in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.
But even with these investments, we know that it is not enough. Given the scale of the challenges facing your region, meeting them will require bringing in new, additional partners. Partners like the impressive group of philanthropic organizations joining us here today, many of which have a strong track record in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, including conserving our oceans. And while these will be partnerships, they will require focusing on local solutions, listening to you all as you lead the way. Solutions that are locally-led but globally-financed.
So, I’m looking forward to today, a frank and open discussion to hear about your priorities, and to discuss opportunities for all of us to work together, partnering to deliver on your region’s ambitions and priorities.
With that, I’ll turn the floor back to you, Sanjayan.