Vanuatu declares climate emergency

The prime minister of the low-lying island nation of Vanuatu has warned of a US$1.2 billion cost to cushion the effects of climate change.

Two devastating tropical cyclones and a hard-hitting dry spell in the last decade were highlighted by the Prime Minister as he spoke to parliament in Port Vila.

The Earth is too hot and unsafe.

We are in danger now, not just in the future.

Dozens of other countries, including Britain, Canada and South Pacific neighbour Fiji, have also declared their support for the motion.

The leader said that Vanuatu's responsibility was to push responsible nations to match action to the crisis.

The use of the term emergency is a way of signalling the need to go beyond reform.

Ahead of a UN vote on his government's application to have the International Court of Justice move to protect vulnerable nations from climate change, the declaration was part of a climate diplomacy push.

Last year, the nation of 300,000 said it would seek a legal opinion from one of the world's highest judicial authorities to weigh in on the climate crisis.

Vanuatu hopes that a legal opinion by the court will shape international law for generations to come on the effects of climate change.

He outlined the country's enhanced commitment to the Paris agreement to be reached by 2030 at the cost of at least US$1.2 billion, in a draft plan focused on adapting to climate change.

He said most of the funding would come from donor countries.

This week, Australia's new Foreign MinisterPenny Wong used a trip to Fiji to promise Pacific nations a reset on climate policy after a decade under conservative rule.

We will end the climate wars in our country, this is a different Australian government and a different Australia. Wong told a Pacific Island Forum event that they would stand shoulder to shoulder with the family.

There will be a new year in 2022.

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