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Republic of Vanuatu’s First Biennial Transparency Report (FBTR)
Under the Vanuatu’s First Biennial Transparency Report to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Submitted by: Ministry of Climate Change, Republic of Vanuatu
Executive summary
This inaugural Biennial Transparency Report for Vanuatu serves as a comprehensive overview of the nation’s efforts to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement. It encompasses critical aspects of Vanuatu’s national circumstances, greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, progress tracking for nationally determined contributions (NDCs), climate change impacts and adaptation strategies, as well as financial and technological support needs and responses related to climate change. Additionally, the report addresses initiatives aimed at averting, minimizing, and addressing loss and damage associated with climate change impacts.
I. National Circumstances and Institutional Arrangements
Vanuatu’s unique geographical and socio-economic context is characterized by its status as a small island developing state (SIDS), facing significant vulnerabilities due to climate change. This section outlines the institutional frameworks in place to facilitate climate governance, including coordination mechanisms among government agencies, civil society, and local communities. The report emphasizes Vanuatu's commitment to integrating climate action into national development plans, promoting resilience, and ensuring sustainable development.
II. National Greenhouse Gas Inventory
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This UNDP-supported, GEF-LDCF funded project, "Vanuatu Coastal Adaptation Project (VCAP)", is working to build resilience through improved infrastructure, sustained livelihoods, and increased food production.
These efforts (with National Government as Key Collaborators) aim to improve the quality of life in targeted vulnerable areasor communities in the coastal zone of the island nation.
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The project will involve a participatory process to identify and implement climate change adaptation measures, through the use of gender sensitive data gathering tools; specific location/areas for implementing adaptation measures and project sites will be identified during the project design phase in close consultation with relevant stakeholders. The project will increase the climate resilience of poor communities living on the selected island. The project will focus on combining soft ecosystem-based, gray-green and hard interventions while also building on existing activities of other relevant projects.
Enabling communities to increase their capacity to adapt to ongoing and uncertain changes requires active collaboration among government, partner agencies, CSOs, and particularly vulnerable and marginalized groups, in developing and delivering community-based adaptation and risk reduction programmes. Involving communities early onwards will lead to increased ownership of selected adaptation interventions and ensure that priority issues are being targeted. It will also ensure that local knowledge is being incorporated in the projects approach.
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The research project will explore two main processes: First, it will investigate how local actors receive knowledge with which they are confronted in connection with climate change, and how they (re)interpret and transform it during the reception process. Second, it focuses on the subsequent cultural changes and particularly on the potential transformations of fundamental ontological concepts.
In order to obtain data about these topics, ethnographic fieldwork will be undertaken in two places in Vanuatu, during which a number of different qualitative methods are employed. It will be conducted by Dr. Arno Pascht and the doctoral researcher Desirée Hetzel as combination of team and individual research in order to give consideration to the domains of men and women and additionally of other cultural differences in Vanuatu, for instance those between rural and urban regions.
According to requirements the project will engage local research assistants and language teachers.
There is no other similar project at the moment in Vanuatu.
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Vanuatu is among the most vulnerable countries on earth to the increasing impacts of climate change, including climate-related natural disasters and the effects of slow-onset events such as sea-level rise and ocean acidification.
As the effects of global warming manifest and the hazards of climate change arise at accelerating rates, there is a need to shift the paradigm towards the standardised and mainstreamed use of science-based climate information, at multiple timescales, to support resilient development pathways.
The proposed project will support this paradigm shift through the strengthening and application of Climate Information Services (CIS) in five targeted development sectors: tourism; agriculture; infrastructure; water and fisheries.
More specifically, the project will build the technical capacity in Vanuatu to harness and manage climate data; develop and deliver practical CIS tools and resources; support enhanced coordination and dissemination of tailored information; enhance CIS information and technology infrastructure; and support the application of relevant CIS through real-time development processes, for more resilient outcomes.
The project has a focus on addressing information gaps and priority needs of target beneficiaries at national, provincial and local community levels across the five priority sectors.
The project will deliver enhanced:
capacity and capability of national development agents, to understand, access and apply CIS
CIS communications, knowledge products, tools, and resources for practical application to development processes.
reliability, functionality, utility and timeliness of underlying CIS delivery systems and data collection infrastructure.
scientific data, information and knowledge of past, present and future climate to facilitate innovated and resilient development.
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The Effectiveness of Formal and Traditional Learning about Climate and Disaster Resilience in Vanuatu
by Charles Andrew Evan Pierce
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Vanuatu is unique among the Paris Agreement parties that have produced Low Emissions Development Strategies (LEDS) and Long-Term Strategies (LTS). Vanuatu is already net negative for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Vanuatu’s large forest area removes more than 10 times the GHG emissions generated from human activity.
Yet, Vanuatu’s own pathway of reducing emissions demonstrates the commitment it seeks at a global level to address climate change. The guiding vision for the LEDS is the following: Reduce emissions across all sectors in a way that supports resilient, sustainable, and equitable growth for its people.
The Vanuatu LEDS provides sector by sector review of alignment with the vision for reduced emissions mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. It assists mainstreaming of emissions mitigation and adaptation in key sectors: energy, transport, waste management, livestock, forestry and agriculture, and water and health. It brings new insights, attention, and engagement with strategic policy challenges and in doing so, identifies new and complementary actions to those actions described in short- and medium-term strategies.
Vanuatu’s energy sector has ambitious mitigation targets to 2030, as described in the National Energy Road Map (NERM) and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). For the most part, these strategies and targets align with the vision of the LEDS to reduce emissions through to 2050. Additional actions are needed to meet the LEDS vision, including enhancing existing programmes to meet the electricity demand outside of grid concession areas, promoting a clean cooking transition, scaling up coconut oil production and improving climate resilience and adaptation planning in the energy sector.
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Starting Situation
Seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes sequester carbon at rates up to 66 times faster than terrestrial forests and store up to 5 times more carbon per hectare. Pacific Island Countries (PICs) possess significant Seagrass and Mangrove (SaM) resources, providing further ecosystem services related to shoreline protection, food security, tourism revenue and water quality. Habitat loss has been increasing rapidly, yet no adequate baselines exist to determine extent of habitats, rates of loss, or design of targeted management solutions. Methods for the assessment of carbon stocks and emissions in SaM areas exist since 2012, but have not been applied consistently to SaM areas in PICs. Policy makers and researchers note the urgent need to collect nationally relevant SaM data based on consistent methods, that ensure transparency and traceability to mitigate the loss of the world’s coastal carbon sinks and reduce the decline of coastal biodiversity.
Short Project Description
In close collaboration with national and regional partners (SPREP, SPC, USP, CSIRO, CIFOR) and the “Blue Planet” Initiative within the global Group on Earth Observations (GEO), the project will be mapping the SaM status in each of the 4 partner countries, and will assess related carbon storage capacity and ecosystem services. Resulting national inventories of SaM habitats, and associated blue carbon sinks and ecosystem service values will support government partners and policy makers in their efforts to strategically develop and implement conservation, management and rehabilitation efforts. Governments will be assisted to establish nationally appropriate incentives for sustainable management and rehabilitation efforts based on the quantification and documentation of SaM carbon stocks and the resulting emission reductions as part of NDCs and National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs).
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In July 2021, UNOSAT and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) signed a new cooperation framework to sustain and expand their longstanding efforts to strengthen capacities in the use of geospatial information technologies for improved resilience in the Asia-Pacific and Africa.This 3 year-long project builds on previous experiences and aims to further enhance capacities by leveraging technological advances and innovation and providing integrated geospatial solutions for improved decision making in the fields of Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Resilience, Environmental Preservation & Food Security in the eight target countries: Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Lao PDR, Nigeria, and Uganda.An innovative user-centred capacity development approach will be applied for the implementation of this project, and it is comprised of:• Technical Training: Through the implementation of this project in each target country, UNOSAT will offer a total of three technical trainings custom-tailored to the country’s needs, with focus on climate finance, geospatial information technology, and disaster risk management. The courses will be delivered to both executive managers and technical staff, through three main approaches: face-to-face, blended learning, and e-learning solutions.• Knowledge Platform & Community of Practice: The project team will also implement a central Knowledge Platform for the project, this will serve as an integrated learning environment for all distance-learning solutions and the main meeting point of UNOSAT’s community of practice, all aiming at sustaining the project outcomes and increasing its impact. The knowledge platform will also facilitate cross country knowledge and expertise sharing for tackling common challenges.
Project
OSCAR is a new agro-meteorological information system that VanKIRAP partner, the APEC Climate Centre (APCC), has been developing with the assistance of the Vanuatu Meteorological and Geohazards Department (VMGD), the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and farmers from across the country.
The OSCAR system uses a combination of computer climate models and locally-recorded climate data to generate agro-meteorological bulletins (‘agromet’ bulletins for short), and assessments of the local climate and how climate conditions are likely to affect crop yields throughout the country.
OSCAR gives DARD field extension officers and individual farmers access to a tailored climate information-based decision support and extreme climate early warning system.
It allows DARD and farmers alike to make informed decisions about crop planting, based on what is happening in the climate at the local level. OSCAR is available as web application and will soon be part of the VMGD website.
Additionally, the agromet bulletins will be disseminated via email, social media, national television and radio, in print, and through VanKIRAP’s network of community climate centres.
All print and online versions will also be available in Bislama soon. The program for the official ceremony is available below.
Accessing OSCAR online
Please open a web browser on your mobile phone (with internet access), and enter the following URL: http://oscar.gov.vu/lite/mobile.do
Users can switch between the OSCAR 'lite' version, designed for low internet bandwidth areas and the 'full' mode with high resolution graphics. Press the 'lite' button on the top left corner to switch between the two modes.
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Organizational Expertise Justification:
Members of the consortium have been working in Vanuatu for over 30 years. We have extensive experience working together and with the government of Vanuatu to help address the immediate and long-term needs of Vanuatu communities across the country. We also have strong experience in helping communities recover from the impacts of disaster events.
Members of this consortium were the key partners in a three year, DFAT-supported AU$2 million community-based adaptation project – Yumi stap redi long klaemet jenis – which pioneered a comprehensive approach to helping communities and local governments prepare for, and manage the immediate impacts of climate variability and extremes, while building the capacity of women, men, girls and boys to develop climate-resilient development pathways. CARE and Save the Children built on this foundation to implement a further 16-month, USAID-supported US$0.5 million community-based adaptation project, while Oxfam implemented a further three-year, Margaret A. Cargill-supported US$847,000 community-based resilience program which continued to build on existing networks and aimed to increase collaboration, knowledge sharing and support between communities, NGOs, relevant government departments and development partners around increasing community and government resilience. Our agencies have also worked in collaboration with communities from across the six provinces of Vanuatu, national civil society organisations and government to develop and implement disaster risk reduction projects, such as the DiPECHO funded “Be Better Prepared (Yumi Redi)” series of projects that focused on community-based disaster risk reduction activities and encouraged communities to form Disaster Management Committees and to support sustainable development action across a range of key sectors, including: livelihoods; water, sanitation and hygiene; education; and gender equality.
Project
The Project Profile for the - "Support to the Acceleration of Sustainable Land Transport and the Introduction of Electric Mobility in Vanuatu"
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The Project Profile for this Project - "Restoring and Protecting Biodiversity, Coastal Landscapes and Climate Change Resilience through Nature Based Solutions, Women and Youth Entrepreneurship in Vanuatu."
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The project will improve climate change resilience, food security and livelihood opportunities through community led NBS in coastal communities in Vanuatu. The expected impact is improved and resilient biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshore aquatic resources and livelihoods for the local population.
Primarily, the project will benefit the governments of Vanuatu, and will directly improve the lives of 22,500 beneficiaries/5,000 households equally distributed across Vanuatu. Women and youth will be prioritized, but because the project aims to improve biodiversity, coastal lands, nearshores and aquatic resources, it will benefit the entire populations of Vanuatu.
Project
Wan Smolbag Theatre conducted a food security survey in the peri-urban communities behind WSB post TC Judy/ Kevin. WSB wanted to find out if there was a need to run a free lunch program to assist the same communities that were beneficiaries from the 2015-16 urban nutrition program; Tagabe Bridge, Chief Lally Komuniti and WSB Staff. 20% of Tagabe bridge and Chief Lally populations were interviewed, Tagabe Bridge had 155 respondents (out of an estimated population of 750), Chief Lally had 43 respondents (out of an estimated population of 250) and 23 WSB staff (out of 100 Port Vila based staff) were included in the survey. A total of 221 people were interviewed, 78 Male, 146 Female and 9 PLWD. 25% of households interviewed included a pregnant or breastfeeding woman. 80% of respondents had at least one household member in paid employment. The average number of children per household surveyed was 2.5.
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The Government of Vanuatu, with the guidance of the Recovery Operations Centre (ROC) conducted a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) with support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Pacific Community (SPC). The PDNA, which took place during the months of April and May 2023, was implemented in collaboration with ADB, FAO, UNFPA, UNWOMEN, UNICEF, WHO, ILO, the World Bank.
The purpose of the PDNA was to identify the damage and loss caused by TC Judy and Kevin across all sectors, to assess the macro-economic and human impact of these disasters, to estimate the recovery needs in all sectors, and to inform Vanuatu’s short-, medium- and long-term recovery and reconstruction process through a well-planned Recovery Plan aligned to the country’s National Sustainable Development Plan 2016-2030. This report presents the final results of the PDNA.
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CURRENT AND FUTURE INFLUENCE OF TROPICAL CYCLONES ON AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN VANUATU
This case study describes tropical cyclone impacts on agricultural production in Vanuatu, using a step-by-step approach. Guidance around conducting this type of step-by-step assessment is provided in more detail on the Van-KIRAP web portal, along with other climate impact related case studies (also termed infobytes), factsheets, visualisation tools and technical resources. This case study can be used as an example for undertaking similar climate hazard-based impact assessments.
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GENDER EQUALITY, DISABILITY, AND SOCIAL INCLUSION (GEDSI) ACTION PLAN FOR CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES FOR RESILIENT DEVELOPMENT IN VANUATU (VAN KIRAP)
A Roadmap to Promoting Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion in Climate Information Services in Vanuatu.
This gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) action plan has been developed for SPREP for the country of Vanuatu. It has been produced in addition to a GEDSI analysis for the Climate Information Services for Resilient Development in Vanuatu (Van KIRAP) project.
Following the United Nations Climate Change Gender Action Plan, this gender, disability and social inclusion action plan sets out outcomes and outputs under five priority areas that aim to advance knowledge and understanding of gender and inclusion-responsive climate action and mainstreaming.
1. Capacity building, knowledge management and communication
2. Gender balance, inclusive participation, and inclusive leadership
3. Coherence
4. Gender and inclusive-responsive implementation and means of implementation
5. Monitoring and reporting
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The VanKIRAP Technical Report - Cost Recovery Mechanism and Models Appropriate for the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-hazards Department.
The Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-hazards Department (VMGD) is a government department within the Ministry of Climate Change, Meteorology, Geo-hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management. The department was established under the Vanuatu Meteorological Service Act of 1989. The Meteorology, Geological Hazards and Climate Change Act of 2016 superseded this Act replaced. The new Act gives direction to the operations of VMGD. Specifically, it directs the department to collect, collate and make available meteorological, climate, climate change, and geohazard data and information, including archiving such data or information, amongst other duties (Republic of Vanuatu, 2017). Furthermore, the Act allows the department to achieve its mandate of installing and maintaining a national network of meteorological observation stations and all other necessary technical installations and equipment (Republic of Vanuatu, 2017).
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This published article on women and climate change in Vanuatu.The research and paper by University of Newcastle (UoN) was undertaken as part of the VanKIRAP Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) work funded by GCF FP035/VanKIRAP project.
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News
PORT VILA: New climate information products that explain how climate change is likely to affect key sectors of Vanuatu’s economy, and how to plan practical adaptations to address climate risk, were unveiled last week in Port Vila.
The new information products are targeted at an audience of Vanuatu Government policymakers, technical experts, and field officers. They were developed for the Climate Information Services for Resilient Development in Vanuatu Project (known in Bislama as ‘VanKIRAP’) by delivery partner CSIRO, Australia’s national scientific and industrial research organisation.
The products cover Vanuatu’s agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure, tourism and water sectors and incorporate science-based historical data and future projections to identify how climate change is already affecting each sector, and how each will be impacted over the short and long term by climate change.
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The project considers the current Vanuatu’s Off-Grid RE and EE Promotion Program as the main baseline effort towards achieving the country’s NERM targets. This program includes the installation of RE-based (mainly hydro, and solar) power generation and distribution systems, as well as some Energy Efficiency interventions. This project aims to fill in critical gaps in Vanuatu’s baseline program.
Policy and planning: The project will identify important policy and planning gaps and institutionalize existing policies and plans in place (NERM-IP Plan and NERM) in the baseline program that it will fill, such as guidelines, standards, and incentive policies.
Institutional: The project will focus and represent relatively innovative incremental aspects. System management will be a critical feature in the sustainability of rural RE systems and their replication and thus an instrumental contribution towards meeting NERM targets.
Capacity development: While Vanuatu has substantial baseline program efforts to install RE systems in off-grid areas, training is very limited and generally consists of one-time training upon installation of systems. For larger-scale systems, capturing wind energy, equipment sourcing, and installation capacity is absent.
Green transport: The project will aim to set example of green transport mechanism by introducing electric vehicles
Financing for energy efficiency: The focus will be given to educating the commercial private sector to set up a loan or equity financing mechanism for Energy Efficiency Equipment and productive uses in rural areas.
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The Project Profile for - "Barrier Removal for Achieving the National Road Map Targets for Vanuatu Phase II (BRANTV II)"
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Director General , Mrs Esline Garaebiti ( brief statement):
The year 2021 also set milestones for the ministry in reviewing existing policies and legal frameworks with the development of relevant indicators targets. The Climate change and Disaster Risk Reduction policy 2022-2030 is reviewed and its implementation plan was developed. Other reporting required under the United nation framework convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been completed, particularly the updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), the Third National Communication (TNC), and the First Biennial Updated Report (FBUR). Numerous materials for education, outreach, and awareness have been developed by all departments and disseminated during national and international days for Meteorology, Environment, Disaster, Energy, and Climate Change.
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Director General's - Mrs Esline Garaebiti Statement brief:
The year 2022 was a challenging and successful one for the Ministry of Climate Change. The achievements outlined herein, is a demonstration of a strong and dedicated team effort by the Ministry. The year 2022 began with the COVID19 lock down of nearly two months, which set us some challenging targets. This meant reprioritising existing work schedules, adjusting budgets and resource flows as well as mobilizing staff to ensure the deadlines were met while still balancing the need to keep on track with existing initiatives and priorities. I will leave the Directors in their Department Reports to provide details on the successful achievement according to their Business Plans activities for the year. I wish to point out that this would not have been achieved without the hard work of the officers serving on the Ministry ofClimate Change team
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The Presenation mainly consists of the :
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❑ Project duration period
❑ Implementing Agency❑ Project sites
❑ Stakeholders & key partners
❑ Purpose/objective
❑ Outcomes/outputs/ key activities
❑ Project Management Unit (PMU)
❑ Project contacts
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