India-backed international organization - Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure or CDRI will be launching a trust fund and operationalizing a program for small island states at COP27 (Conference of the parties) summit in Egypt. The program, Infrastructure for resilient island state program or IRIS will help island states in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Ocean to deal with the impact of climate change. 


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Speaking to Zee Media, Director General of CDRI Amit Prothi said, "any island country which is more than 50, will be eligible for applying for the program. Even if you are not a member of CDRI, any Island that is suffering, or facing risk from climate change is eligible for applying to this facility.".


CDRI was launched in 2019 by Indian PM Modi at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit and has over 30 members so far. Prothi explained that under the 2 projects, CRDI will "support early warning systems, nature-based solutions, looking at alternatives" and look at "risk-informed discussion making, using data for better decisions, and we will be helping to mainstream resilience". 


The operationalization of IRIS will take place on the 17th, while the launch of the trust fund will take place on the 9th. IRIS was launched by PM Modi, along with PMs of the United Kingdom, Australia, Fiji, Jamaica and Mauritius during last year's COP summit in Glasgow. The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP27 will take place in Egypt's Sharm El Sheikh from November 6-18. The annual summit sees the world gather to chalk out ways to deal with the climate crisis.


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Q: If you can explain to our viewer, what is CDRI all about? 


A: Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is an organization that was announced by PM Modi in 2019 in the UN climate summit. It is our leadership in the world, trying to see how we can influence the world's agenda to reduce disaster risk to infrastructure. For example, we are reading a lot more about flooding, damages that happens due to earthquakes, we are reading about cyclones that impact the coastal communities. So how do we reduce the risk we are facing from the continued events, natural events like earthquakes or events due to climate changes. So how do we address those risks and organization really about taking leadership around the world. We are a coalition of 31 member countries, under the leadership of India. We have the US, UK, Ghana, Chile, Dominican Republic, so it's a whole gamut of countries around the world who have said that we will join India to demonstrate what we can do to reduce the risk. So essentially a coalition, under the Indian govt's leadership. So, we have a rotating co-chair. We had the UK govt as the co-chair, now it is the US govt that is part of it. 



Q: You will be going to COP27 naturally, what will be the focus of CRDI and the proposal that will be put..


A: Climate change summit that starts has a lot of focus on adoption, solution and financing. It is the first summit in the global south for a long time, it's in Egypt, Africa. The agenda is how do we show, demonstrate, and share examples of solutions that are working to address the risk of climate change. How do you also increase the financing that is going towards a climate change solution? For CDRI it is an opportune moment to talk at this global advocacy platform. It gives us a platform to share what CDRI is, and why we are important in the whole discussion. Advocacy is a big agenda for us. The second agenda is the finance topic. We are actually going to be launching a trust fund that will focus on resilient infrastructure solutions. We got commitments from the India, UK, Australian govt and EU. It will be a big announcement from CDRI, likely on the 9th. Another agenda will be—the Indian PM and 5 other PMs at the last year's climate summit announced-- Infrastructure for resilient island state program (IRIS). 6 PMs got up and said that we will help find solutions to problems that small island developing states are facing across the world. So we had a year now to do consultations across different island states, we have reached out to the Caribbean, pacific and Indian ocean island states to understand what the challenges might be. At this COP we will be announcing assistance through a technical and capacity-building facility and knowledge creation facility to invite small island states to apply for these kinds of support via CDRI and our partners. We are going to launch at this year's COP and start to roll out the program in the next few months. 


Q: If you can explain on IRIS and how many countries will be reached out. 


A: IRIS or its program for Infrastructure for resilient island states. We are basically saying, any island country which is more than 50, will be eligible for applying for the program. Even if you are not a member of CDRI, any Island that is suffering, or facing risk from climate change are eligible for applying to this facility. The focus will be, we will support early warning systems, we would support nature-based solutions, looking at alternatives, we are going to support innovative solutions. We are also looking at risk-informed discussion making, using data for better decisions, and we will be helping to mainstream resilience--building roads, airports- how do we make sure those are free from future risks in these island states. 


Q: When the launch happens, will any leader be present?


A: IRIS will be on the 17th of this month, the trust fund likely on 9th. World leader event happened last year; this is basically an operational announcement. So, we will senior members from the representative govt. Not a head of state, but senior members from various govts.


Q: CDRI has a rotational partner, what have they done?


A: UK has been our first partner; they have been really instrumental in helping us set up as an organization. We were brand new; the PM made an announcement in 2019, 2020 covid hit and we were starting to set up. The UK govt has been really instrumental in helping us build the organization and conceptualize IRIS. They have been close partners; how does the coalition support small island developments right from the beginning. They have supported us to build circulars. Between Indian and UK universities, new circulars to address risks in the future. Now the US govt has shown interest in that particular agenda item and we are exploring with them, how do we build a large network of universities with our coalition partners to train the next generation how to address risk in the future. That is one agenda from the US, they are also keen on private participation. At the end of the infrastructure is built by the private sector. How the private sector can be brought to the coalition, we have some members and how information can be taken to them. They are making decisions on infrastructure. The US has invested in a team that is sitting in Delhi that is building our capacity. Lot of our members are building our capacity to understand risk and deliver that across the world. These are some of the ways governments are helping us.