Vanuatu calls on world leaders to drop lip service and fulfill climate pledges

By Pacific Island Times News Staff

Plans, promises and declarations without corresponding actions are pointless, according to Vanuatu’s climate official, who called on world leaders to make their climate pledges “a binding legal duty.”

“Protecting the ocean from climate change should not be a matter of choice. We need concrete mechanisms and independent monitoring to ensure that nations uphold their legal responsibilities,” Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s climate change adaptation minister, said at the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference taking place in Nice, France.

Ralph Regenvanu

The conference officially opened on June 9 with strong calls to accelerate action to protect the ocean and adopt a political declaration and registry of voluntary commitments called the "Nice Ocean Action Plan."

The plan promotes the sustainable use of the ocean in support of Sustainable Development Goal 14, focusing on life above and below the water.

“It is time to move beyond voluntary pledges to making climate action a binding legal duty,” Regenvanu said.

“Even so, plans like these are voluntary. Promises without enforcement. Declarations without duty. Conferences like this one, and the upcoming COP30, must not leave frontline nations feeling that nothing is changing, despite the overwhelming urgency," he added.

The Nice Action Plan comes ahead of an anticipated ruling from the International Court of Justice that could set the path for climate action linked to accountability.  

The advisory opinion was sought by Vanuatu in a landmark lawsuit, seeking clarification on the countries' legal obligations regarding climate change and the protection of present and future generations from its adverse effects. 

The case was initiated by a group of law students in Vanuatu and endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly. 

Regenvanu said the Nice Ocean Action Plan aligns with the standards set by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea’s May 2024 advisory opinion stating that greenhouse gas emissions are marine pollution.

“And under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, all states are legally bound to prevent, reduce, and control them. This obligation extends not only to domestic emissions but to global ones as well,” the Vanuatu official said.

He noted that while the Pacific island nations’ contributions to climate change are minimal, they suffer the economically devastating impacts of climate change.

“That’s why we eagerly await the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the broader climate obligations of nations, in hopes of a strong ruling supporting global accountability for the climate crisis and enforceable climate action,” Regenvanu said. 

“It’s time for states to catch up with the law, with the science, and with the urgency of this moment," he added.

Regenvanu said Pacific islanders are living through the collapse of ocean stability and witnessing a dangerous acceleration in sea-level rise and ocean temperatures.

“Our oceans are increasingly hostile even to the very creatures that live in them,” Regenvanu said.

“The consequences of this will ripple through the entire food chain, hitting vulnerable countries like Vanuatu the hardest and ultimately affecting all of humanity and future generations. The role of our ocean as our greatest carbon sink is being threatened.”

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