(Commonwealth)__In the London Climate Week, the Commonwealth Secretariat and auctusESG convened a roundtable on strengthening countries’ resilience to climate shocks. The financiers, diplomats, climate specialists, and policymakers at the meeting were in consensus in their declaration that the upcoming economies, most particularly the most climate-exposed nations, are worthy of sympathy—transformational, systems-level change is what they need to become resilient in the long term.
The most eloquently spoken words came from Jovilisi Vulailai Suveinakama, Fiji’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He knew that for nations such as Fiji, reconstruction is not a temporary situation following a disaster but a state of perpetuity. Every weather-related incident—a cyclone, flood, or drought—is requiring reconstruction currently, which is normally accomplished with borrowed money. The borrowing typically comes with high interest rates, which contributes to the nation’s debt and diverts necessary resources from public services like healthcare and education. This issue lies at the heart of the Commonwealth Year of Resilient, Innovative, and Sustainable Debt, which aims to end this lethal cycle.
Knowledge sharing, best practice, and policy direction were key features of the roundtable. There was facilitation of discussion on scaling up access to finance, risk management, and effective solutions sharing throughout the Commonwealth that improve resilience. It further facilitated consideration of the present shortcomings of the international financial system in not meeting the pressing needs of climate-vulnerable countries.
Commonwealth Secretariat Economic Development, Trade and Investment Directorate Senior Director Dr. Ruth Kattumuri reaffirmed the imperative to carry forward ideas put forward during the session to practical application. The Secretariat is poised to consolidate expert opinion into technical, policy, and project blueprints that would be quantifiable in effect. Specifically, there was also reference to the advantage of listening directly from Fiji delegates, who were coming not just with what they are battling with but also the cutting-edge solutions that are being tested on the ground. The Secretariat once more reasserted its commitment to further advancing its efforts to support its member states by building their capacities and providing access to climate finance on an equal basis.
The roundtable presentations were enlightening and informative, and they pointed towards increased cooperation and stronger collaboration being needed. Most of the members perceived potential for increased cooperation in financial solutions for developing countries and small states. One of the highlights of the findings from the roundtable discussions was the need to urgently focus on speeding up giving aid and bridging the financing gap.
Dr. Thomas Munthali, the small states’ champion of the Secretariat’s economic policy work, underlined the need to go beyond climate risk analysis. Risk analysis has its uses, he said, but what countries now require are tools that their economies can actually employ to shield themselves from the impacts of climate disruption. This entails constructing the capacity to access finance in an effective manner and creating climate-resilient as well as climate-smart economic policies. The ultimate goal is to prevent one disaster from setting a country back to not meeting its long-term development goals.
Namita Vikas, the founder and managing director of auctusESG as well as an award-winning climate finance practitioner, emphasized the urgent need for funding in regions vulnerable to climate change. She stated that this issue is compounded by complex eligibility criteria that prevent the most vulnerable nations from accessing fair and timely financing. These inherent weaknesses in the global financial system limit the effectiveness of climate resilience measures. Current fiscal arrangements, she described, remain unfair to the pressing and specific necessities of the climate emergency.
In all, the roundtable reaffirmed collective action, concrete reforms, and more equitable financing arrangements. It reaffirmed the Commonwealth’s commitment to support its member countries in pursuing a complicated path of sustainable and resilient development under the mounting pressures of climate change.
