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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 project will facilitate the improvement of water supply and sanitation services in 15 rural communities in Vanuatu. Water sources will be improved and the water brought within short walking distance of homes, with better access to improved sanitation facilities in the communities being provided through community driven demand from sanitation marketing initiatives. Governance and management training will be provided for water management committees, and hygiene awareness and training will be facilitated for communities using the PHAST methodology with integrated disaster risk reduction activities included to disaster-proof the new development and raise the community level of resiliency to disasters.
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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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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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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.
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The development of the Vanuatu Vehicle Emission Standards Policy Brief is a joint effort led by the Government of Vanuatu through the Ministry of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology & Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, with technical support from the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and inputs from various key stakeholders in Vanuatu. The Government would like to thank all individuals and groups and in particular fuel importers and sellers in Vanuatu who have contributed by providing vital information, data, participating in consultations and meetings and reviewing the documents. A special thanks to the GGGI team in particular Dr. Julia Hollnagel, Senior Officer for Pacific Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Mr. Jesse Benjamin, Senior Program Officer for Vanuatu and Miguel Londoño, Program Manager for the Low Emissions Climate Resilient Development (LECRD) Program. We also acknowledged the support from Ian Twomey, Director of Envisory Group in New Zealand who have contributed to the National Fuel Standards Policy Brief. Vanuatu has been a proud member of GGGI since 2014 and GGGI is proud to support Vanuatu’s green growth and climate resilient future. The Vanuatu Vehicle Emission Standards Policy Brief has been produced with the financial support of the Government of New Zealand under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) through the Pacific Regional Low Emissions Climate Resilient Development (LECRD) Program.
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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.
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This Environment and Social Impact Assessment and Management Plan have been prepared for The Pacific Community (SPC), to inform the project design of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Funding Proposal titled: Enhancing Adaptation and Community Resilience by Improving Water Security in Vanuatu. This project will deliver adaptation action for Vanuatu’s water infrastructure and community users and will ensure gender mainstreaming in the paradigmatic shift being proposed
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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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The Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP) is implementing the Climate Information Services for Resilient Development in Vanuatu (CISRD), or Vanuatu Klaemet Infomesen blong redy, adapt mo protekt (Van-KIRAP) Project. As the first part of this project, Tonkin & Taylor International Ltd (T+TI) has been engaged to provide technical expertise on the Van KIRAP Project and the Department of Water Resources to review and update existing flood mitigation guidelines for the Sarakata catchment in Espiritu Santo Island, and to support the development of flood early warning systems in Sarakata.
This report provides a review of the existing Flood Mitigation Guidelines for Sarakata, Pepsi and Solwei Areas (2011) including the evaluation and identification of gaps in terms of early warning systems and long-term climate change considerations. The review has identified the gaps across governance, institutional arrangements, observations, risk knowledge, warning dissemination, and preparedness and response. The following recommendations are provided to address the identified gaps and to inform the development of updated flood mitigation guidelines:
• Strengthened governance and institutional arrangements, relating to:
− Strengthened policies and institutional frameworks at the provincial level including clear roles and responsibilities.
− Clear standard operating procedures for flood early warning system management. − Development of forums to enable coordination and partnerships.
− Update and finalise the Sarakata Flood Management Plan, including establishment of a monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure effective and coordinated governance of flood disaster risk reduction and to foster sustainable development.
• Strengthened observation, monitoring, analysis, and forecasting, relating to:
− Additional observational equipment and supporting services and capacity.
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The Paris Agreement was adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015, during the 21st session of Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and entered into force on 4 November 2016. This landmark agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change and requires all Parties to establish robust measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems and to communicate their efforts to UNFCCC. In this context, on 22-Jul-21, GEF approved a project identification form (PIF) and project preparation grant (PPG) submitted by FAO titled ‘Strengthening capacity in the Energy, Agriculture, Forestry, and other Land-use Sectors for Enhanced Transparency in the Implementation and Monitoring of Vanuatu’s Nationally Determined Contribution’.
The project aims to develop Vanuatu’s institutional and human capacities for complying with Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) reporting requirements of the Paris Agreement, and implementation and monitoring of Vanuatu’s Nationally Determined Contribution focusing on Energy, Agriculture, Forestry and other Land-use Sectors. With the MOCC Department of Environment Protection and Conservation (DEPC) of Vanuatu & Department of Climate Change as executing partner, and CBIT as resource partner, the GEF-7 has entrusted FAO for the preparation and implementation of the project.
The project will be executed under the following components and outcomes:
Project Component 1: Strengthening Vanuatu’s institutional arrangements for a robust MRV system for NDC climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.
Outcomes of Project Component 1:
1.1 NDC transparency system in place following the UNFCCC modalities, procedures, and guidelines.
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Vanuatu National Community-based Climate Change Adaptation Project (provisional) Project Profile Form
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The VANUATU’S GCF ACCREDITATION PROCESS: ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
This report responds to a request for assistance from the Government of Vanuatu (GoV) to the USAID Climate Ready program regarding GoV’s efforts to secure accreditation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Accreditation would allow GoV to submit climate change adaptation and mitigation project concepts and proposals directly to the GCF without having to go through an external partner, thus streamlining the process and establishing a greater degree of country ownership over GCF activities in Vanuatu. In order to secure accreditation, GoV must demonstrate institutional and human competencies in several areas related to the preparation, review, administration, and implementation of climate change projects. This report focuses on the requirements related to environmental and social safeguards (ESS). The overall objective of the report is to provide specific recommendations as to how GoV can meet GCF’s ESS requirements for accreditation.
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Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and disaster risks, routinely being at or near the top of global risk indexes. This high ranking is primarily due to the country’s extreme exposure to natural hazards as well as its limited adaptive capacity. Temperatures in Vanuatu have already increased by approximately 1˚C and are expected to increase further by at least 1˚C by 2030, with increases of up to 3.2˚C by 2090. This increase in temperature is coupled with an increase in sea level of approximately 6mm annually since 1993. This increase is expected to continue and accelerate into the future, with cumulative increases of up to 17cm by 2030 and 63cm by 2090. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is also predicted to increase, and the changing profile of cyclones, storm surges, landslides, flooding, and droughts will result in severe impacts on lives, livelihoods and infrastructure across Vanuatu, affecting both human communities and natural ecosystems.
In recent years, the Government of Vanuatu (GoV) has taken significant steps to improve resilience to natural disasters and adaptive capacity to climate change adaptation. These steps include:
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The Vanuatu National Climate Change Disaster Risk Reduction Policy 2022 - 2030 second edtion
Vanuatu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and disaster risks. The island nation experiences cyclones, storm surges, landslides, flooding and droughts, which may become more intense as a result of climate change. Vanuatu is also highly exposed to geophysical threats such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as human, animal and plant diseases, and human-caused disasters.
The vision of this Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction Policy is for Vanuatu to be a nation whose communities, environment and economy are resilient to the impacts of climate change and disaster risks. Risks cannot be completely eliminated; however, this policy provides a framework through which risks can be identified, assessed, reduced and managed.
At the global, regional and national levels, disaster risk reduction and climate change agencies, activities and funding have been previously managed separately. A recent shift in philosophy now views the integration of climate change and disaster risk reduction initiatives as the best way to make use of resources and avoid duplication of effort. Vanuatu started this process with the establishment of the National Advisory Board on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction in 20121 . The government undertook a risk governance assessment to analyse Vanuatu’s climate change and disaster risk governance capacity and needs at both national and local levels.2 The policy incorporates recommendations from that assessment and draws on local, provincial and national consultations.
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The UNOSAT- NORAD Project Presentation,being presented to the NAB Members on the 3rd NAB Meeting on 19th of July 2022, for the NAB Board Members to endorsed the Project.
Presenter: Ian Huri, CommonSensing, UNOSAT
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The Project Profile Form for the Project - Strengthening capacities in the use of geospatial information for improved resilience in Asia-Pacific and Africa
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Vanuatu submits this updated and enhanced nationally determined contribution (NDC), in which our politicalleaders, technical experts and civil society have considered how our nation can move to a global net-zerogreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions society (Article 4.1) whilst being resilient to the unavoidable impacts ofclimate change (Article 7.1), minimising, averting and addressing loss and damage (Article 8) in the contextof the long-term temperature goal (Article 2), while determining our financial needs (Article 9) that shall beprovided by developed country Parties in continuation of their existing obligations under the UNFCCC.Vanuatu is already a carbon-negative country. With forests covering 70% of its islands, and its maritimejurisdiction comprising 98% of the nation, the big ocean state of Vanuatu is already a carbon sink -absorbing more carbon dioxide than it produces - thus freely providing a critical environmental serviceto carbon emitting countries around the world. Moving beyond our current Net Zero status, this NDCrecommits Vanuatu to rapidly phasing out fossil fuels, deeply decarbonising and transitioning completelyto a circular economy.Pursuant to Article 4 of the Paris Agreement, and to demonstrate that Vanuatu is an action-focused leaderin its calls for all Parties to make ambitious commitments to limit the global average temperature increase to1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, Vanuatu’s NDC reflects the highest ambitions on adaptation, mitigation,and loss and damage. As per Decision 4/CMA.1, Vanuatu’s information provides clarity, transparency andunderstanding.This updated and enhanced NDC contains 20 Mitigation commitments, 116 Adaptation commitments, 12Loss & Damage commitments and is based on the ambitions, policies and workplans of Vanuatu's frontlinesector agencies.
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The Pacific Risk Resilience programme (PRRP) will focus on strengthening governance mechanisms for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) at the sub-national and local levels. The goal of the programme is: to strengthen the resilience of Pacific island communities to disasters and climate change related risk.
Pacific Risk Resilience Programme is design to supporting and partnership with existing stakeholder’s engagements / activities with a focus on strengthening governance mechanism for Disaster Risk Management and Climate change adaptation at all levels of decision making.
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IUCN Marine & Coastal Biodiversity in Pacific Islands Countries & Atolls Project (MACBIO) is supporting the Vanuatu Government achieve sustainable management of ecosystems and marine resources in country. Natural resources in marine and coastal areas are of high importance for Vanuatu and sustain the livelihoods of coastal communities. However, the need to use marine resources sustainably is not well reflected in national planning processes, due in part to insufficient information regarding their economic value and lack of concerted marine spatial planning.
MACBIO project 2013-2018 aims to help Vanuatu to meet their commitments under the CBD Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and the relevant Aichi targets, including the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (POWPA) and the Programme of Work on Island Biodiversity (POWIB) Specifically, the project aims to enhance ecosystem-based management and support more effectively managed marine resources which should lead to more resilient coastal and marine economies, more sustainable use of marine biodiversity, and will contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as securing and strengthening local livelihoods. Tried and tested concepts and instruments will be adopted in Vanuatu.
The MACBIO project is being implemented by GIZ with technical support from IUCN-Oceania in close collaboration with SPREP.
. The IUCN components of the project aim to achieve the following outcome and outputs:
Outputs (specific project goals):
An ocean-wide policy and spatial planning framework
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PEBACC is a five year project funded by the German Government, implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to explore and promote ecosystem-based options for adapting to climate change. The overall intended outcome of the project is: EbA is integrated into development, climate change adaptation responses, and natural resource management policy and planning processes in three Pacific island countries (Vanuatu, Fiji and Solomon Islands) providing replicable models for other countries in the region.
Overall Goal:
· Natural adaptation solutions are fully integrated into development, climate change adaptation and NRM policy and planning processes in four ecologically and geographically diverse Pacific island countries, also providing replicable models for other countries in the region, and is successfully demonstrated through implementation at national, provincial and local levels.The project will employ staff in Vanuatu; In addition to a SPREP Officer who will be the Vanuatu component project leader for this project and may be based in Vanuatu; One or two locally hired positions will directly support the project implementation and develop linkages to other projects and programmes, it is proposed that a locally hired position will be located within the SPC-GIZ CCCPIR.
Relevant projects and strategy to avoid duplication:
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Pacific Islands are among the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change as they are affected by repeated volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclones, floods, droughts, and invasive sea level rise, which are rapidly eroding nations’ exceptional terrestrial and marine biodiversity, green coastal lands, nearshores, blue reefs and other aquatic resources. Economic development, and demographic pressure on land and marine resources, including overfishing,have already exacerbated these challenges. The loss of biodiversity, coastal lands, and aquatic life, has also had major societal and gender implications in shaping the quality of life for women, girls, boys and the elderly, including reduced livelihood opportunities, which are undermining women and youth’s voices in the conservation and management of communities' global commons.
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Flagship initiatives are the first, best or most promising examples of successful ecosystem restoration that a country or region would like to be globally known for. The main role of Flagships is to provide inspiration to other countries and regions for scaling up successful restoration efforts, and to attract global attention and investments. Selected Flagships will act as a basis for joint learning across the world. Up to 10 Flagships selected in the first round will be launched in 2022, likely in conjunction with the UN General Assembly in September. All official Flagships of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration will feature prominently in the UN Decade's publications, campaigns, outreach, advocacy and education efforts going forward, and will be listed in the UN Secretary-General's Report to the General Assembly (UNGA) at its 81st session.
Brief description of project, key activities and outputs, how will it be implemented?]
The SIDS Ecosystem Restoration Flagship (SIDS Flagship) concept note was submitted to and approved by the UN Decade Executive Board on December 17th 2021. In a nutshell, this Flagship will put marine and coastal ecosystems at the heart of economic policy and decision-making in the era of COVID 19. This SIDS-led initiative will also put a face to marine and coastal ecosystem restoration with SIDS leading by example and inspiring pride.
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This project aims to Respond Vanuatu’s obligations under para 29 of CMA3 UNFCCC decision, and to the urgent call by UN Secretary General, UNFCCC SG and COP26/COP27 Presidencies for all countries to submit a more ambitious NDC before COP27 to reflect national sectoral priorities and highest-level ambitions on adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage.
Vanuatu’s 2021 NDC mitigation component remains the same, while 166 Adaptation Targets and 12 Loss & Damage Targets have been added, based fully on 38 existing sector policies.
The expected outcome of this NDC revision is to ensure that Vanuatu’s highest level climate priorities of adaptation and loss & damage are reflected, and that Vanuatu’s NDC comprehensively addresses all contributions it plans to make to meet the Goals of the Paris Agreement. This will support Vanuatu in its efforts to raise international climate finance, as well as showcase the severity of climate impacts and need for urgent action in support of grassroots communities and islands.
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The project profile for this Project: "SIDS Ecosystem Restoration Flagship: Vanuatu, Comores and Santa Lucia"
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