Vanuatu, like most PSIDS, bears little responsibility for climate change, but its geographical, socioeconomic and climate profiles make it particularly vulnerable to its impacts. In addition to this, Vanuatu remains under resourced as current investments to address the climate crisis fulfil only a small portion of estimated needs. Vanuatu is pursuing direct access to the GCF and other climate funds, but substantial scaling up of finance for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage is required – both to address climate change vulnerability by building the resilience of key sectors to climate impacts, and to address the drivers of climate and disaster risk in Vanuatu.
Climate change is recognized by the Government of Vanuatu, and within the broader Pacific region, as “the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific.”1 As a party to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement2, Vanuatu has invested considerably resources into integrating climate change considerations into national and sectoral policies and programmes over the past several years. Examples include the country’s overarching National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) and dozens of sector policies in key thematic areas. Addressing the climate crisis will require a transformational paradigm shift across our society by continuing to integrate climate change into sustainable development policies and actions across multiple sectors, leading to a reduction in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and our overall vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change.
Climate finance remains a core enabler of Vanuatu’s response to climate change. While the 2009 Copenhagen Accord’s goal of mobilising USD 100b per year by 20203 was not met on time, developed countries collectively surpassed it in 2022 (USD 115.9b),4 and international negotiations have since established a post-2025 mobilisation goal. At the 29th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Baku in November 2024, Parties agreed on a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). The NCQG calls for at least USD 300b per year by 2035 for developing countries, alongside a broader call for all actors to work toward mobilising USD 1.3t per year by 2035. Yet global and developing-country needs remain far larger, measured in the trillions, with UNFCCC assessments and independent analyses indicating multi-trillion annual investment requirements this decade. In this context, Vanuatu must continue to mobilise domestic and external resources across a mosaic of sources and instruments, with a strong preference for grants and highly concessional finance, while leveraging private capital and improving access, absorptive capacity, and implementation readiness.
The National Climate Finance Road Map (CFRM) 2026-2030 is a ‘living document’ that provides a high-level overview of Vanuatu’s national climate change finance sector objectives and targets. 

This update builds on the progress made under the initial road map5 developed by the Government of Vanuatu in 2016, and subsequent update in 2021.6 The road map is designed to provide the Vanuatu with medium-term strategic guidance on the mobilisation and governance of climate change finance to support investments addressing the climate crisis and sustainable development.
Background information on climate change in Vanuatu, including climate risk, vulnerability, impacts, finance, and governance arrangements, are provided for context. This is followed by an overview of the climate finance landscape, including flows of finance internationally, within the Pacific region, and to Vanuatu. Estimates of the level of investment required to meet the costed needs of implementing the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)7 is provided, including sources of finance, key challenges, and opportunities. This document concludes with an overview of the updated road map based with revised objectives, outcomes, and outputs that is reflected in a Theory of Change and Logical Framework. A list of stakeholders that were consulted is provided as an annex for reference.