Chasing climate changers

VANUATU MAY SUE: TARGETING FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES AND INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES

Plan to shift costs back to culprits after island lost R6.2bn of GDP in one cyclone.

Wellington

Low-lying Vanuatu is considering suing fossil fuel companies and industrialised countries that use them for their role in creating catastrophic climate change, the foreign minister of the Pacific island nation said yesterday.

Vanuatu, with an estimated population of 280 000 people spread across roughly 80 islands, is among more than a dozen Pacific island nations that already face rising sea levels and more regular storms that can wipe out much of their economies.

Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said it was time that some of the billions of dollars of profits fossil fuel companies generate every year goes towards the damage they cause in countries like “desperate” Vanuatu.

“This is really about claiming for the damages,” he said.

Speaking at the Climate Vulnerable Forum’s Virtual Summit earlier in the day, Regenvanu announced the legal options Vanuatu was considering.

“My government is now exploring all avenues to utilise the judicial system in various jurisdictions, including under international law, to shift the costs of climate protection back on to fossil fuel companies, the financial institutions and the governments that actively and knowingly created this existential threat to my country,” he said.

About 64% of Vanuatu’s gross domestic product was wiped out in a single cyclone in 2015, causing economic losses of $449.4 million (R6.2 billion), he said.

Samoa, on behalf of the 18 Pacific island forum members, including Vanuatu, on Saturday called on leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to pay more attention to climate change.

Regenvanu said Vanuatu was also pursuing the idea of joining hands with other nations to pursue legal action.

“We are looking for climatevulnerable countries that are willing to step up and be involved in such a case,” he said.

He said Vanuatu would discuss it with other countries at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change next month. “Vanuatu’s brave announcement is part of a global wave of legal action against oil, gas and coal companies and laggard governments,” Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said. Climate change lawsuits against big corporations and governments are on the rise. – Reuters