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Reducing the risk of climate change requires large and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, most of which are caused by the burning of fossil energy sources (1). The debate around emission reductions has been dominated by concern for economic growth, and its reliance on cheap and plentiful energy. Instead, I believe energy’s role in achieving human development should be our core priority.

The concept of ‘climate finance’ has gained considerable currency following commitments from developed countries to provide new and additional funding for action on climate change. There have been a series of studies estimating the size of the financing need and assessments of how the international financing architecture can meet those needs. Sources of ‘climate finance’ comprise not only finance that governments spend, but also private finance for private actions on climate change. These studies have served a useful purpose of putting the mobilization and effective use of increased international resources for action on climate change firmly on the agenda.

The Pacific Islands Greenhouse Gas Abatement through Renewable Energy Project (PIGGAREP) is a Global Environment Facility (GEF) US$5.25 million project in eleven Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Implementation of the project started on 1 January 2008. PIGGAREP’s planned five year duration has been extended to six and a half years, with a scheduled end date now of December 2013.

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) submitted its Initial National Communication in October, 1999. This Second National Communication uses it as the baseline to document the increases in FSM's vulnerability to climate change, and changes in its greenhouse gas emissions, since the Initial National Communication was prepared. This National Communication also reports on the efforts FSM is making to reduce its emissions and to identify and implement adaptation options that reduce climate risks.

As recently as a decade ago, discussions about climate change were nearly exclusively the province of experts in environmental and atmospheric science. In doubt about the reliability of available information on the causes and effects of climate change, world opinion leaders as well as the wider public scuttled around questions about how much they could actually achieve or, indeed, whether it was even necessary to do anything at all. Today, the effects of climate change are felt all over the world and climate change is no longer a theory or a meteorological model that interests only a few people. Because of the scientific work that has been done, more people now understand how human activities are hastening it. There is also more and more recognition that climate change seriously threatens sustainable human development. Now and in future, it affects or will affect agriculture, energy, human health, food security, the economy, and physical infrastructure.

Increasing recognition of the changes in the natural environment as a result of human interference has lead to the international community agreeing on a number of multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs). At the 1992 Earth Summit, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for "sustainable development" – meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations. Three key agreements from the Summit are the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. These three are known as the Rio Conventions.

Disaster occurrence and losses associated with extreme and increasingly not so extreme climate events have increased dramatically in recent years. While many of the emerging patterns of disaster risk are associated with natural hazards that show no tendency to increases in magnitude and recurrence, human interventions in the natural\ environment are generating new socio-natural hazards, mainly associated with climate events. In many incidences of new flooding, landslide, drought, forest fire and coastal erosion, environmental degradation has transformed natural resources into new hazards. At the same time, the social, economic, territorial, physical and political vulnerability of populations in many developing countries continues to worsen, weakening their capacity to absorb the impact of and recover from extreme climate events.

Climate change creates a serious challenge for sustainable development, with scientific projections indicating that billions of people will face food and water shortages, increased exposure to diseases, losses of homes, assets and livelihoods, and forced migration. Recognising the urgency of the issue, the international community has pledged significant funding for adaptation and mitigation in developing countries, and a wide range of mechanisms and institutions for climate finance are rapidly developing. In order to maintain progress - or even current achievements - towards the MDGs, it is imperative that these funds be spent effectively and not be diminished or lost through corruption.