Intervention

Delivered by: Honorable Stephanie Ngirchoimei
House Representative, Palau National Congress
Palau on behalf of AOSIS

High-Level Solutions Dialogue on Adaptation
22 September 2025, UN Headquarters

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

It is an honor to speak on behalf of the 39 members of the Alliance of
Small Island States. We are nations diverse in geography and culture, but
united by shared vulnerabilities and a deep commitment to building
resilience in the face of climate change.

The latest Adaptation Gap Report underscores a sobering reality: the
world is dangerously off track in closing the adaptation gap. Finance
needs are up to fourteen times larger than current flows, and
implementation lags even where plans exist. For SIDS, this is not an
abstract warning but a threat to our very way of life – rising seas,
stronger storms, and salt-intruded aquifers threaten our homes,
livelihoods, food and water security every day.

Today’s Dialogue on accelerating adaptation implementation and
investment is therefore timely. Closing the finance and implementation
gaps is essential to protect our lives, livelihoods and ecosystems. But as
we have emphasized before, ambition must be supported by practical,
country-led implementation. Leadership by those affected is key.
For SIDS, any effective adaptation framework, whether called a
platform, a package, or a facility, must be country-driven not just in
principle, but in practice. That means our governments, individually or
through our regional organizations, must set the agenda, determine
priorities, and drive design and governance.

We must have the resources to write our own terms of reference, work
with people we trust, and coordinate the platform’s day-to-day functions.
Anything less risks replicating the fragmentation and inefficiencies we
are trying to overcome.

At the same time, we cannot afford to be burdened with additional
bureaucracy. Country platforms, or similar initiatives, should build on,
not duplicate, existing processes. They must also work to advance a
coherent approach to our climate action, implementation of the SDGs
and of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS. For small islands,
these tools must accelerate coordinated action, not add hurdles.

On finance, SIDS urgently need predictable, scaled-up, and timely
grants-based flows aligned with our national priorities, supported by a
global financial system that recognizes our small scale and limited fiscal
space. Even highly concessional loans deepen our debt burdens. At the
same time, innovative tools, such as resilience and blue bonds, risk
pooling and insurance, and pre-arranged financing, can de-risk
investment, mobilize private capital, and deliver rapid resources when
climate shocks strike, but these tools must be deployed in ways which
consider the special circumstances of SIDS, and are not just designed for
larger economies.

As we look to COP30, the proposed Adaptation Package can only
succeed if it delivers real outcomes for the most vulnerable, predictable
finance, country-driven implementation, and platforms that empower
rather than encumber.

Thank you.