The Pacific country of Vanuatu has launched one of the world's most ambitious climate policies, committing to 100% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030 and ambitious targets on loss and damage.
The announcement signals another instance of the small island state making its mark in international climate efforts.
At the UN climate summit in Glasgow last year, all countries were urged to strengthen their nationally determined contributions to the NDCs on climate action by the end of 2022. Vanuatu is one of only 12 countries to have achieved this, and its ambitious targets have been praised by regional experts.
They are setting an example for the rest of the world, said Tagaloa Cooper-Halo, director of the climate change resilience program at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme SPREP Vanuatu, who is leading by example despite negligible emissions. They are leading the way by putting up their plan. This was a monumental effort by their government and all the stakeholders because it took a lot of work and coordination to arrive at that announcement. Vanuatu is already a carbon-negative country, meaning it absorbs more emissions than it produces, but has committed to going further, by phasing out fossil fuels almost entirely and hoping to become 100% renewable by 2030.
They are pushing for a loss-and- damage finance facility to be established quickly in order to support vulnerable communities.
The cost of achieving Vanuatu's revised commitments is estimated to be $1.2 billion by the year 2030.
Dr Wesley Morgan, a senior researcher at the climate council, said Vanuatu was the first nation in the world to call for climate polluters to pay for the permanent losses and irreversible damage caused by their emissions.
Today, Vanuatu is calling for the establishment of a new loss-and- damage finance facility at the UN. Australia should support a new loss-and- damage finance facility in order to be an effective ally to the Pacific on climate action. The move also sets the tone for the Pacific s preparation for the COP 27 summit to be held in Cairo in November.
Vanuatu, which is rated as the country most at risk of natural disasters by the UN, is currently pushing for an advisory opinion on climate-related harm from the International Court of Justice ICJ.
Cooper-Halo said that the Vanuatu government has been very bold in pursuing the ICJ opinion, and this is good for the Pacific.
More than 80 states from around the world are supporting their efforts to get an advisory opinion from the ICJ ahead of a vote at the UN General Assembly at its next session, according to the Vanuatu government.