REMARKS: Opening Statement by Deputy Prime Minster of Fiji, Hon. Biman PRASAD, at Pacific Resilience Week

• Deputy Secretary General – Mr. Esala Nayasi 
• Senior Government Officials from across our Pacific Ocean
• Representatives of CROP Agencies
• UN Resident Coordinator, senior representatives from UNDRR and 
UNESCAP and other UN organisations
• Pacific and international organization representatives

Warm Pacific Greetings to you all and good morning to you all. 
Colleagues, this meeting is happening at a pivotal time as next you’re your Ministers and senior officials will gather for the Pacific Pre-COP to discuss our region’s priorities and objectives for COP29. Within those deliberations we must focus on translating our national and regional requirements into positions that can influence the negotiations at an international level.

At the core – our efforts will remain focused on keeping global average temperature rise below 1.5 degrees is a must, as for us in the Pacific – the difference between 1.5 and 2 or 3 degrees becomes a matter of survival for our people and communities. At the same time our focus will be on the global financing dimension - The means to avert, minimize and address climate driven loss and damage. 
But this week our focus is squarely on us. On our needs and challenges and very importantly on our strategies and existing and emerging opportunities for increasing our ability, resources, and capacity to tackle the impacts of the climate crisis. 
In Tonga, at the Pacific Leaders Meeting last month the existential threat of climate change took centre stage – and is the common theme throughout the communique 
• Leaders communicated the need for transformative and resilient development in the face of climate change
• They produced a regional declaration on the unacceptable mounting threats of sea level rise and the impact of SLR on 
statehood and maritime boundaries.
• They decided on the domicile for the Pacific Resilience Facility – our regional response to ensuring financing for resilience can 
flow more responsively to the needs of this region.
• They recognized the increasing need to address the impact of climate change on our health and education systems as well as 
our fisheries.

Colleagues, the political will to increase action and scale in our response to climate change was clear. Over the years, our Pacific leaders have welcomed the multi-dimensional vulnerability index, they have reaffirmed their commitment to the FRDP, and engaged in the ICJ advisory opinion on climate change.

This week will bring us the opportunity to advance our efforts to better conceptualize and implement a comprehensive approach to climate and disaster risk management, it requires input to define the actions that will shape our delivery of the regional climate mobility framework and provides the platform for this region to communicate loss and damage capacity 
building needs and priorities to the secretariat of the Santiago network for loss and damage. 
The agenda is ambitious, but it is commensurate with our ambition and the urgency we face. However, the multifaceted focus of this week is to recognize the complementarity, coordination and coherence of these efforts. 
We cannot rely on global financing architecture and the international climate change regime to provide solutions we need to continue to define and innovate home grown solutions and direct rather than accept the support we receive. 
The outcomes of the first Global Stock take of the Paris Agreement underscored the need for a more coherent approach, as did the midterm review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. But we cannot afford to be incoherent or inefficient in our efforts. Hence the need to convene the three interlinked workshops and sessions on these crucial issues. 

The establishment and operationalization of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage and the roll-out of the Santiago network in quick succession over the last four years shows that we can influence change at the international level. But that progress also requires us to be prepared and ready to take early advantage of new opportunities. 
With that framing I call on all participants to be active and ambitious in their contributions this week. The outcomes need to be in line with the directives our leaders and importantly with the needs of our communities that continue to face the brunt of this international crisis. 
In closing I wish to thank all the organisations that have made this week possible and thank the Pacific Islands Forum for providing the space for these important and interlinked events. 

For our Pacific brothers and sisters that have travelled to be here, I hope Fiji is and can continue to be a second home for you. We know, as ever that the Pacific and its diversity shares a common mindset that is always strengthened when we are together where-ever we are in the blue Pacific continent.

Vinaka vaka levu and Danyavard.