India-backed international organization – Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure or CDRI will launch a trust fund and conduct a program for small island states at the COP27 (Conference of the Parties) summit in Egypt. The Program for Resilient Island States Program, or IRIS, will help island states in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Oceans to cope with the effects of climate change.
Speaking to Zee Media, CDRI Director General Amit Prothi said, “Any island country that is over 50 will be eligible to apply for the program. Even if you are not a member of CDRI, any island that is suffering is, or is facing. Risks from climate change are eligible to apply for this facility.”
CDRI was launched in 2019 by Indian PM Modi at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit and has more than 30 members till date. Prothy explained that under the 2 projects, CRDI will support “early warning systems, nature-based solutions, looking at options” and “considering risk-informed discussions, using data for better decisions, and we Will help in the resilience of the mainstream”.
IRIS will be operational on the 17th, while the Trust Fund will be operational on the 9th. IRIS was launched by PM Modi along with the Prime Ministers of United Kingdom, Australia, Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius during the COP summit in Glasgow last year. The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP27 will take place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from 6-18 November. The annual summit sees the world gathering together to find ways to tackle the climate crisis.
Q: If you can explain to our audience what is CDRI?
A: Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is one such organization which was announced by PM Modi at the United Nations Climate Summit in 2019. This is our leadership in the world, trying to see how we can influence the world’s agenda for reducing disaster risk to infrastructure. For example, we are reading a lot about damage caused by floods, earthquakes, we are reading about cyclones that affect coastal communities. So how can we reduce the risk from continuous events, natural events like earthquakes or events caused by climate change. So how exactly do we address those risks and the organization goes about taking the lead around the world. We are a coalition of 31 member countries led by India. We have the US, the UK, Ghana, Chile, the Dominican Republic, so it is a whole bunch of countries around the world that have said that we will join India to demonstrate what we can do to reduce risk. So essentially a coalition, led by the Indian government. Therefore, we have a rotating co-chair. We had the UK government as co-chair, now it is the US government that is part of it.
Q: You will naturally go to COP27, what will be the focus of CRDI and what will be proposed..
A: The climate change summit that is about to begin has focused heavily on adoption, solutions and financing. This is the first summit in the global south for a long time, it is in Egypt, Africa. The agenda is how we show, demonstrate and share examples of solutions that are working to address the risk of climate change. How do you increase funding going toward climate change solutions? This is an opportune time for CDRI to speak on this global support forum. This gives us a forum to share what CDRI is, and why we are important in the entire discussion. Advocacy is a big agenda for us. The second agenda is finance. We are actually going to launch a trust fund that will focus on resilient infrastructure solutions. We got commitments from India, the UK, the Australian government and the European Union. This is likely to be a big announcement from CDRI on 9th. There will be another agenda – the Indian Prime Minister and 5 other Prime Ministers announced at last year’s climate summit – Infrastructure for Resilient Island States Program (IRIS). Woke up at 6 pm and said that we will help find solutions to the problems that small island developing states are facing around the world. So now that we have a year to consult in different island states, we have approached island states in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean to understand what the challenges might be. In this COP, we will announce support through a technical and capacity-building facility and a knowledge building facility to invite small island states to apply for such support through CDRI and our partners. We are going to launch at this year’s COP and start rolling out the program in the next few months.
Q: If you can tell about IRIS and how many countries will be contacted.
A: IRIS or its Program for Infrastructure for Resilient Island States. We are basically saying, any island country who is over 50 will be eligible to apply for the programme. Even if you are not a member of CDRI, any island that is suffering or at risk of climate change is eligible to apply for this facility. The focus will be, we will support early warning systems, we will support nature-based solutions, looking at the options, we are going to support innovative solutions. We’re also looking at creating risk-informed discussions, using the data to drive better decisions, and how we’ll help mainstream flexibility – building roads, airports – in how we make sure they’re in these island states for the future. are free from risks.
Q: When the launch takes place, will a leader be present?
A: IRIS will be on 17th of this month, trust fund will be on 9th. The World Leaders event took place last year; It is basically an operational declaration. Therefore, we will be the senior members of the representative government. Not the head of state, but senior members of various governments.
Q: CDRI has a rotational partner, what have they done?
A: UK has been our first partner; They have been really helpful in helping us establish as an organization. We were brand new; In 2019, 2020 PM made an announcement that covid is hit and we were starting to set. The UK government has been really instrumental in helping us build the organization and conceptualize IRIS. They have been close partners; How the Coalition supports the development of Small Islands from the very beginning. They have supported us in making the circular. New circulars to address future risks, between Indian and UK universities. Now the US government has shown interest in that particular agenda item and we are exploring with them how we can build a larger network of universities with our coalition partners to train the next generation to deal with future risk Can go This is an agenda of America, they are also keen on private participation. The infrastructure is ultimately built by the private sector. How can the private sector be brought into the alliance, we have some members and how can they be briefed. They are deciding on the infrastructure. The US has invested in a team based in Delhi that is building our capacity. Many of our members are building on our ability to understand and distribute risk around the world. These are some of the ways in which governments are helping us.