Australia allocates initial climate change funding

04/02/2008 01:22:26

The Australian Government says 2 million Australian dollars in funding to help some South Pacific nations fight climate change is just the first allocation of a much larger assistance fund.

The Parliamentary secretary for Development Assistance, Bob McMullan says the money will be provided through AusAID to fund programs in Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and Solomon Islands.

During the election campaign the government promised 150 million dollars to help the South Pacific adapt to climate change.

Mr McMullan says the announcement is the start of that program.

"This has enabled a lot of good small village based projects to start and it's an example we can actually show to the whole of the Pacific about how local people can take control of their situation and restore reefs and restore fishing," he says.

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