By Pacific Island Times News Staff
Between 2017 and 2023, the U.S. government invested $1.9 billion in U.S. territories and Pacific island countries to help mitigate the impact of climate change.
However, the Government Accountability Office found that some awarding agencies could not determine how the climate funds are spent.
“While agencies can identify which countries received funding for activities implemented in a single country or U.S. territory in the Indo-Pacific region, State and (U.S. Trade Development Agency) could not identify how much funding they provided to the different countries associated with multi-country activities,” GAO said in a report released Wednesday.
“According to these agencies, they are unable to track data on award amount by country because they are generally not required to do so, or activities are budgeted for the entire activity rather than a specific country,” the report said.
GAO noted that the scarcity of information from U.S. agencies stands in contrast to that of their foreign counterparts.
“For instance, when the Asian Development Bank builds a road in Papua New
Guinea, the official said that everyone knows who funded that activity and can report how much was invested,” the report said.
Federal agencies have extended assistance to mitigate the risks of climate change in Pacific island states and U.S. territories, which are found to be most vulnerable to climate anomalies.
GAO’s evaluation of U.S. climate aid covered 19 selected Indo-Pacific
locations including three U.S. territories—Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa— 14 small island developing states as well as Bangladesh and the Maldives.
Four agencies were selected for review: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of the Interior. GAO determined that these agencies generally followed key performance management practices to assess the effectiveness of their climate activities.
“However, given the challenging environment in the Indo-Pacific region in which they are implementing climate activities, all four agencies could better assess factors that could affect achieving activity results and identify mitigations to address them,” GAO said.
“Better data on funding provided to individual countries could enable agency officials and policymakers to better ensure accountability of U.S. funding and to make informed decisions about future resource needs,” it added.
GAO also noted that U.S. assistance to Pacific island nations is designed to support Washington’s diplomatic strategies in the region.
“However, without more detailed and clearer information about the assistance that the U.S. has provided to the countries, it can be unclear even to those countries how the U.S. is supporting these diplomatic goals,” GAO said.
“For example, according to government officials in Palau and Papua New Guinea, if an activity is for the region and the individual country only receives a portion of the activity, it can be difficult for them to know the value or see the impact of the activity on the country.”
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