Representatives and officials from the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), New Zealand and the European Union (EU) met with Solomon Islands’ leaders recently to prepare for the implementation of the Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility, which will deploy over USD15 million in climate finance for the highly vulnerable Pacific nation. Through the support of New Zealand and the EU, funds will support the delivery of adaptation projects at the grassroots level and deliver on national commitments to build resilience to the escalating impacts of climate change.

Presently some 38 countries around the world have engaged LoCAL to unlock climate finance for local governments to support adaptation efforts, including eight Small Island Developing States (SIDS). One of those is the Solomon Islands, which earlier this month welcomed UNCDF officials to further plan the implementation of the LoCAL mechanism in the country.

“The Solomon Islands’ national and local government representatives know that there is no time to waste when it comes to strengthening systems and capacity to respond to climate change at the local level,” said Melissa Tipping, Lead Specialist for the Pacific from UNCDF, who attended the meetings. “LoCAL will be building on the foundations of the systems already established at the Provincial and Ward levels in the Solomon Islands to ensure that communities are responding to climate change in a way that best meets people’s needs.”

The High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands, H.E. Jonathan Schwass, represented New Zealand, which has committed NZD 15 million (USD 9.2 million) to Solomon Islands through LoCAL. The Head of Finance, Contracts and Audits at the Delegation of the European Union for the Pacific, Mr. Dirk Homann represented the EU which has committed EUR 6 million (USD 6.5 million) in funds to the Solomon Islands, also to be channeled to communities through the LoCAL mechanism. The funding support reaffirms the commitment of New Zealand and the EU to supporting locally led action on climate change.

The newly elected Premier of Guadalcanal Province, Willie Atu, welcomed the commitments and looked forward to working with the LoCAL-implementing team.

The UNCDF is committed to strengthening the resilience of Pacific nations and SIDS to the impacts of climate change and increasingly frequent climate-related shocks and disasters through LoCAL. Designed to channel finance to local governments and communities for locally led adaptation, LoCAL is a proven mechanism for delivering SIDS’ work towards securing a more resilient and sustainable future, which is also the subject of the SIDS4 international conference underway in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

Changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and the increased threat of frequent and devastating climate shocks, such as extreme weather events and flooding, are creating a toxic mixture of threats for the Solomon Islands’ population of 720,000 people. Agricultural land, biodiversity and ecosystems across the 994 small islands and atolls that make up the territory are facing the impacts of climate change.

LoCAL in the Solomon Islands seeks to increase provincial government access to climate finance to implement climate change adaptation investments equitably. LoCAL’s approach of using national fiscal transfer systems to direct Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants to local governments for locally led adaptation will be applied in nine provincial governments. In each instance, UNCDF will be building on the government’s Provincial Capacity Development Fund (PCDF), which also uses performance-based grants to deliver funds to the subnational level, and working in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology.

Photos: Melissa Tipping, John Rae (market photos)

Find out more about LoCAL here

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