Tonga will be among the first beneficiaries of the BRACE Project, a muit-million dollar initiative launched at COP28, to help build climate resilience in schools.

The “Building the Climate Resilience of Children and Communities through the Education Sector” (BRACE) project aims to construct climate-resilient schools, with an initial focus on Tonga, Cambodia, and South Sudan, as pilot countries, to benefit four million safer schoolchildren, setting a precedent for global collaboration toward a resilient educational future.

The world’s two largest funds for climate and education, the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) [2] collaborated with Save the Children, to launch an unprecedented US$70 million investment on the BRACE project, launched at COP28 in Dubai, UAE on 2 December.

Prime Minister Hon. Hu’akavameiliku said that there was an imminent risk of disrupted education for nearly one billion children due to climate change.

Addressing Tonga's vulnerability to climate change, the Prime Minister noted the 2018 Cyclone Gita, which inflicted USD$19 million in damages to schools in Tongatapu.

He called for COP members to take action, by positioning the BRACE project as a game-changer for climate-resilient education.

This ground-breaking financing mechanism will support education systems in vulnerable countries to construct climate-resilient and green schools, integrate climate change in school curricula and provide climate early warnings to schools.

Based on results and lessons from the three pilot countries, BRACE will expand its investment pool of school infrastructure projects that GCF, GPE and other donors, including the private sector, can contribute to through additional financing for greener and more climate-resilient education systems.