Posted on 30 May 2022
Vanuatu’s parliament has declared a climate emergency with the low-lying island nation’s prime minister flagging a $1.2bn cost to cushion global warming’s impacts on the Pacific country.
Speaking to parliament in Port Vila, Prime Minister Bob Loughman said rising sea levels and severe weather were already disproportionately affecting the Pacific – highlighting two devastating tropical cyclones and a hard-hitting drought in the last decade. “Using the term 'emergency' is a way of signaling the need for ‘responsible nations to match action to the size and urgency of the crisis."