The Vanuatu’s Parliament has declared a climate emergency, endorsed unanimously by all Members of the Parliament in the parliament chamber on Friday 27th of May 2022.
Hon. Prime Minister Bob Loughman Weibur - Vanuatu Parliamentary Climate Emergency Declaration
The Hon. Prime Minister Bob Loughman Weibur tabled the motion number 3 of the 2022 and presented a motion of climate emergency declaration to the rest of the world. The purpose of the declaration is to put the government on record in support of taking emergency actions and to elevate our climate change related human rights campaign to the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) later in September this year.
The Hon. Prime Minister echoed that the rising sea levels and severe weather were already excessively affecting the Pacific island countries including Vanuatu and highlighting two devastating tropical cyclones hard hitting Vanuatu in the past few years. “Current climate warming has now reached this emergency condition” Prime Minister Loughman said.
He continued by saying “present level of warming — more than 1.1°C higher than the late nineteenth century”.
“The Earth is already too hot and unsafe. We are in danger now”
The Vanuatu Nationally Determined Contribution commitments are conditional to external finance, in order for the small island state to effectively address climate change impacts. However the real costs of achieving Vanuatu’s Revised and Enhanced NDC by 2030, expected to be financed by donor countries, is a minimum of USD 1.2 billion by 2030, broken down into Mitigation costs of USD $315 million, Adaptation Costs of USD $721 million and Loss & Damage Cost of USD $177 million.
The government of Vanuatu declares that a climate emergency exists that is now existentially imperiling the people, societies, and natural resources of the Republic of Vanuatu, further declares that climate change is now undermining the fundamental human rights of present and future generations of Vanuatu’s people and reaffirms, as our Pacific Leaders have, that climate hange is the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security, and wellbeing of the peoples of Vanuatu and the Pacific.
In this regards, The Vanuatu government is seeking an Advisory Opinion (AO) on climate change at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to protect the fundamental human right of present and future generation from climate change, to avoid further degradation of environment from climate change, save the Paris agreement by enabling higher climate ambition by all countries and strengthen theUnited Nation systems and multilateral processes to address global issues.
For more information please visit https://www.vanuatuicj.com/home
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Vanuatu Department of Foreign Affairs Tel: +678 27750
Fidel Zebeta Public Relation Officer, ICJ, Department of Climate Change