The Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat have released a Climate Change and Disaster Risk Finance Assessment to aid the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in further strengthening its ability to quickly access and secure climate change and disaster risk finance. This assessment aims to help “guide FSM’s efforts to improve access to climate change and disaster risk financing from external sources.”

In the foreword to the 2019 February Assessment, Hon. Andrew Yatilman, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Emergency Management, FSM National Government, notes that the country “is on the front line of the devastating impacts of climate change” due to its low-lying nature. He further adds that the “geographic distribution” of Micronesia’s four states poses a challenge with respect to disaster preparedness and response and adds to the costs of such efforts.

Improved access to and management of climate change and disaster risk finance is therefore a key priority for the Government of the FSM, states the report. According to the Assessment, accessing finance is critical for national and individual states achieving strategic outcomes related to disaster risk management (DRM) and climate change adaptation and mitigation in the context of resilient and sustainable development. This is exacerbated by the small size of the economy and the lack of sufficient national financial resources to address challenges such as climate change.

The Assessment states that the FSM has demonstrated leadership through engaging in a number of “key initiatives to improve its access to and management of climate finance.” Highlighting these initiatives, Yatilman notes that the FSM is “the fourth country globally and the first country in the Pacific to have developed and endorsed a national Green Climate Fund Country Program.” The FSM has also successfully accessed Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness Funds, project funding from the Adaptation Fund and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), as well as direct funding from bilateral partners who are supporting sustainable development in the FSM.

The Assessment further notes that, at the national and state level, the FSM is slowly progressing in its adaptation and mitigation actions in line with policy priorities outlined in the Nation-Wide Integrated Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Policy, the National Disaster Response Plan and the Joint State Action Plans. Additionally, each of the four states of Micronesia have in place their own disaster risk management plans.

Finally, the Assessment states that the country is committed to making climate finance an enabler to build resilience and achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) goals under the Paris Agreement on climate change, as well as SDG 13 (climate action). [Publication: Federated States of Micronesia Climate Change and Disaster Risk Finance Assessment] [Federated States of Micronesia Environment Data Portal] [Pacific Environment Portal]

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This story was made possible with funding support from the Government of Sweden through the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and was developed with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) using the Pacific Environment Portal, which enables users to find, access, and use regional and national data. The portal has been developed by the regional UNEP-GEF Inform project executed by SPREP, which has established national environment data portals in 14 Pacific island countries to help address the challenges of storing and accessing data. The online database of information and datasets aims to help improve decision making and reporting on the environment.