'Eua

Vava'u

Ha'apai

Niuas

Tongatapu

Tonga

<p>The project aims to strengthen climate resilience in Pacific Small Island Developing States by supporting locally led adaptation innovations through the Climate Innovation Co:Lab. It helps communities, youth, and local enterprises design, test, and scale solutions addressing climate risks like sea-level rise, droughts, and cyclones. Through stages of incubation, acceleration, and amplification, it promotes knowledge sharing, gender equality, and traditional knowledge, fostering inclusive, sustainable, and regionally coordinated adaptation across the Pacific.</p>

This project will strengthen the resilience of educational systems in Cambodia, South Sudan, and Tonga by retrofitting schools with climate-resilient features, integrating early warning systems, and embedding climate risk into education policies and planning. It supports GCF’s ambition to scale up investments in early warning systems and resilient infrastructure in climate-vulnerable sectors, advancing replicable models for systemic adaptation.

Climate change is disrupting education systems in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, leading to school closures, higher absenteeism, and increased dropout rates due to rising temperatures, floods, and droughts. Addressing these challenges is essential to protect learning continuity and build long-term resilience for children and communities. 

 The BRACE project will strengthen educational systems by integrating climate resilience into school infrastructure, policy, and planning. It will retrofit schools with climate-smart features, implement early warning systems to reduce disruptions, and support curriculum reform. Ministries of education will be supported to access climate finance and embed education in national climate strategies, while knowledge-sharing platforms will promote learning and replication across countries. 

GCF will provide USD 40.75 million in grant funding to support implementation across Cambodia, South Sudan, and Tonga.  Co-designed with the Global Partnership for Education, BRACE is the Fund’s first education-focused climate resilience initiative. It sets a transformative precedent for integrating climate resilience into educational systems and unlocking global scale-up opportunities. 

 GCF's Project Preparation Facility (PPF) support was deployed to help develop the project.

This project will finance the development, installation, and operation of up to 15,000 hydro panels across 1,000 sites in the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

All four target countries face high climate vulnerability due to changing weather patterns, floods, droughts, and seawater intrusion, which worsen annually. This results in deteriorating water access and security in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Water utility services are severely limited: 10 per cent coverage in Papua New Guinea, 20 per cent in Vanuatu, 30 per cent in the Marshall Islands, and 57 per cent in Tonga. Despite prioritising water security in National Adaptation Plans, fiscal constraints and underdeveloped capital markets hinder large-scale infrastructure projects.

The project targets approximately 100,000 direct beneficiaries in rural and outer island communities, especially schools and public institutions without access to safe drinking water. The proposed technology in each hydro panel is atmospheric water generation (air-to-water), offering a decentralised water supply solution. It extracts potable water directly from the atmosphere using solar energy, replacing reliance on rainwater, groundwater, or bottled water.

Some key activities include signing sustainable financial and operational agreements, installing decentralised solar-powered hydro panel systems, and ensuring long-term system sustainability through operations and maintenance.

To strengthen Tonga’s institutional, technical and human capacities for effectively monitoring and reporting NDC implementation and GHG inventory and for complying with Enhanced Transparency Framework requirements.

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Tonga

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Adaptation Fund

Climate Investment Funds

Green Climate Fund

Global Environment Facility