Low-lying Vanuatu isconsidering suing fossil fuel companies and industrialised countries that use them for their role in creating catastrophicclimate change, the foreign minister of the Pacific island nation said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Climate Vulnerable Forum’s Virtual Summit,Ralph Regenvanu said the impact of climate change is felt firstand hardest by those who are least responsible for it.
"Vanuatu is on the front lines of climate change and yet wehave benefited least from the exploitation of fossil fuels thathas caused it," Regenvanu said.
"My government is now exploring all avenues to utilize thejudicial system in various jurisdictions - including underinternational law - to shift the costs of climate protectionback on to fossil fuel companies, the financial institutions andthe governments that actively and knowingly created thisexistential threat to my country,” he said in a video of thesummit posted online.
Vanuatu, with an estimated population of 280,000 peoplespread across roughly 80 islands, is among the more than a dozenPacific island nations that already face rising sea levels andmore regular storms that can wipe out much of their economies.
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