Kiribati is pleading with the European Union to make climate change funding easier for small island states to access.
An extra 23-million US dollars to help Pacific nations cope with climate change was part of a new European Union development partnership unveiled last week.
A senior official at Kiribati's ministry of finance, Teriba Tabe, says for small island states, it is difficult to actually get the funding.
"We have limited capacity, we don't have much time to go through these procedures, and guidelines to follow, so hopefully we'll get there, but our plea to the European Union members if they can always make the rules more flexible and suitable for us."
Teriba Tabe says it is very good that the EU and African, Carribean and Pacific countries decided a strong position for this week's Rio-plus-20 conference on sustainability.
