Statement delivered by H.E. Patrick Langrine, Secretary of Finance, Marshall Islands
V20 MINISTERIAL DIALOGUE IX
16 October 2022
H.E. Patrick Langrine, Secretary of Finance, Marshall Islands
Thank you, Chair. And warm Yakwe to everyone this morning. Excellency, Ministers, and Honorable Representatives, the latest IPCC report reaffirms that the reality of the Marshall Islands and climate vulnerable countries worldwide with a prevailing 98 percent protection gap or, as stated in the earlier intervention, a sink hole, and rising sea levels, our window of opportunity is shrinking. We urgently need to scale up and accelerate investment in our resilience.Â
We therefore welcome the Global Shield Against Climate Risks as an opportunity to deliver on better pre-arranged finance to contribute to averting, minimizing an adverse in loss and damage. We especially appreciate the special window of the V20 Joint Multi-Donor Fund to provide finance for loss and damage.
As a member of the V20 Troika, as well as of the Board of the Global Shield. And as the incoming Chairman of the Council of Members of the Pacific Catastrophic Risk Assessment Foundation Initiative, we also wish to raise an urgent matter for the climate risk protection of Pacific Island.
In 2021 Germany has responded to the request of the Pacific Catastrophic Insurance Company, PCRIC, to provide premium financing for Pacific Islands seeking disaster insurance offered by PCRIC. PCRIC’s request was based on the demand of Pacific Islands.
German’s response was the contribution of 10 million euros to the PCRIC Trust Fund, managed by the World Bank. We thank Germany for their support. Since then, however, the World Bank has not deployed these funds.
While the meeting today is not the place for further detail, we emphasize that we are aligned with PCRIC and therefore request the immediate and full release of the 10 million euros to PCRIC.
The respected option to facilitate this transfer includes through the World Bank’s Global Rich Financing Facility are currently being discussed between Germany and PCRIC. We trust that Germany and PCRIC will select the option which move these funds the quickest and at the lowest cost.
In this context we also highlight that the method for the V20 Joint Monthly Donor Fund which was set up with a contribution of the Marshall Island, this to support implementation in climate rollover countries.
Once the decision on the transfer of funds is made, we also request the World Bank to act swiftly and not further delay the response to the demand for financial protection by Pacific Islands.Â
In this spirit, we conclude by calling on all stakeholders of the Global Shield to truly collaborate to ensure that we deliver on financially protecting our economics and our people. Thank you.
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