Vanuatu Brings Climate Leadership to Global Negotiations in Germany

Vanuatu Delegation to the SB62 Session in Bonn, Germany

Bonn, Germany – June 2025: While the world watches for solutions to the global climate crisis, Vanuatu is once again stepping forward to ensure that the voices of vulnerable communities—especially those in remote islands—are heard loud and clear, and lobbying donors to allocate new climate money that will help Vanuatu’s villages address the worsening impacts.

Vanuatu is participating in the annual UN Climate Conference’s mid-year negotiations, known as the 62nd Subsidiary Bodies session (SB62), taking place from 16 to 26 June at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany.

These talks are vital for preparing key decisions that will be finalised at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, later this year, and is one of the most important places where Vanuatu can pitch its climate project needs to development partners from across the world.

International negotiations are where global rules and climate funding decisions are shaped—including how resources flow to countries like Vanuatu to strengthen community resilience, rebuild after disasters, and prepare for growing climate risks. For example, all of the major climate projects that Vanuatu is now implementing stem from our involvement this UN climate process, including the major Green Climate Fund projects underway in hundreds of Vanuatu villages, the renewable energy projects like solar, wind and hydro operating on Tanna, Efate, Malekula and Santo, nationwide school reconstruction projects after disaster events, and even the programmes that help chiefs and communities conserve nature and biodiversity for more resilient livelihoods. 

While Vanuatu is disappointed in the pace of action and the low ambition from many Parties to the Paris Agreement, we need the resources and support that flow from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and so must stay fully engaged and demonstrate leadership in critical areas like climate finance, adaptation, loss and damage, capacity building and the just transition away from fossil fuels. The money provided so far is far from enough, but without it, Vanuatu would be facing dire consequences from intensifying climate impacts. Vanuatu’s active leadership here ensures that these processes reflect Pacific realities—not just the interests of the big, rich and fossil fuel producing powers.

Vanuatu’s delegation is led by Director General of the Ministry of Climate Change, Mr. David Gibson, and includes senior public servants from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Climate Change, and is supported by technical experts from the Pacific region.

Vanuatu’s interventions are always focused on keeping the planet below the dangerous 1.5 degree limit that science tells us would lead to even more dangerous climate change, as well as giving other countries practical, innovative and high ambition solutions to the most complex multilateral issues we face.   Vanuatu delegates have featured on panels and side events daily, as the world wants to learn from us, and share in our efforts for science-based action.

While International climate meetings can often seem far removed from village life, the decisions made in rooms like those in Germany over these two weeks directly shape the resources and tools that reach our shores; these global efforts connect to Vanuatu’s everyday climate realities. Vanuatu’s leadership at this UN climate negotiation is not an option—it is a necessity, ensuring that international promises translate into real action for island peoples. 

For more updates from Bonn, follow the Ministry of Climate Change Facebook page.