Vanuatu launches revised action plan to better fight climate change

SUVA, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Vanuatu launched on Friday its revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to better fight climate change, which is believed to be the single greatest existential threat facing the South Pacific island countries.

According to Vanuatu's Daily Post newspaper, the revised NDC, a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts, was launched by Vanuatu's Ministry of Climate Change at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Economic Ministers Meeting in the capital city of Port Vila where the topics of inadequate and inaccessible climate finances dominated discussions.

The revised NDC acknowledged that finance to address loss and damage by climate change is insufficient, and called for the establishment and rapid mobilization of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to fill critical financial gaps experienced already by most vulnerable communities, and to address loss and damage through the constructive multilateral process and thereby avoid costly legal pathways.

A statement by the ministry highlighted the island nation's call for the establishment and rapid mobilization of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility under the UNFCCC.

"While developed countries had promised to mobilize at least 100 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020 to fund climate change in developing countries, the latest analysis shows that this finance has not yet been met," the ministry said.

"The real costs of achieving Vanuatu's Revised and Enhanced NDC, expected to be financed by donor countries, is 1.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, with mitigation activities costing 315 million U.S. dollars, adaptation initiatives costing 721 million U.S. dollars and the commencement of loss and damage initiatives starting at 177 million U.S. dollars," it said.

Vanuatu, an island nation with a population of about 320,000, is one of the victims of climate change.