Vanuatu’s Challenge to the World: Law, Justice, and Climate Accountability

Mirielle Augustin | Indo Pacific Fellow

Image sourced from Geof Wilson via Flickr.

The view from the tarmac

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Port Vila, Vanuatu. About three and a half hours after leaving Sydney, I landed in Bauerfield International Airport. We disembarked the plane onto a tarmac surrounded by lush greenery that stretched across the the horizon. My fellow passengers were mostly Australian families, heading off to enjoy a “resort paradise” just a short hop from our shores. Maybe they’d go snorkelling to see the reefs. Maybe they’d hike the coastline or wander through the markets downtown.

I wondered how many of us, if any, thought twice about the fragility of what we were seeing. About how, for all its calm and beauty, this island sits at the frontline of an intensifying crisis . That tension, between “paradise” and precarity, is where Vanuatu has built one of the most remarkable stories in modern climate diplomacy.

From moral authority to legal accountability

For decades, Pacific nations have occupied a paradoxical position in global climate politics: both disproportionately affected and chronically under-resourced. Pacific diplomacy was often framed in moral terms, the Pacific as the conscience of the world, appealing to empathy rather than leverage. Recently, that moral authority has evolved into something sharper and more strategic.

Vanuatu’s campaign for an International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion epitomised this shift. The ruling, delivered in July 2025, confirmed that states are legally obliged under international law to protect the climate system, prevent harm, and cooperate to mitigate global warming. It affirmed the 1.5°C target as a binding threshold, extending beyond the Paris Agreement, and opened the possibility of legal consequences for non-compliance.

The case began with a group of university students in 2019 who petitioned the Vanuatu government to seek legal clarity on states’ responsibilities. The eventual campaign, supported by over 130 countries, became one of the most ambitious exercises of climate multilateralism in decades.

I had the privilege of speaking with Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Energy, Environment, Meteorology, Geo-Hazards and Disaster Management, Hon. Ralph Regenvanu, whose leadership has been central to ICJ campaign. He reflected that following the delivery of the Advisory Opinion, the UN General Assembly “now has both the opportunity and the responsibility to act on the Court’s findings that confirm human rights must be safeguarded when fulfilling adaptation obligations.” While the decision did not impose direct penalties, it provided something arguably more powerful: a legal anchor for climate justice advocacy. It re-situated climate inaction not as policy failure, but as potential violation of international law, a conceptual shift that arms Pacific diplomacy with new tools.

Coalition-building beyond the courtroom

Now, Vanuatu is pursuing a new United Nations resolution to transform the ICJ opinion into political action. Speaking with me, Regenvanu explained that Vanuatu, alongside a cross-regional core group of states, will advance a UNGA Resolution following COP 30 to endorse the Court’s full opinion and propose measures to strengthen multilateral efforts for a fair and effective global response. “Transparency and accountability for responsibility of the climate crisis,” he said, “are a critical element to address for real action to advance.”

This new strategy reflects a pragmatic realisation: moral legitimacy alone rarely moves the machinery of global politics. To sustain influence, Pacific nations must translate empathy into enforceable mechanisms and institutional partnerships. The ICJ campaign was a blueprint for precisely that, using the tools of international law to create durable coalitions that outlast media cycles or political sympathy.

Strategic recalibration: the Pacific as norm-shaper

Vanuatu’s actions embody a broader recalibration in Pacific diplomacy. Historically, the region’s foreign policy identity has been tied to vulnerability. But a new generation of Pacific leaders and diplomats is repositioning the region as a norm-shaper rather than a moral witness.

Through instruments like the Blue Pacific Continent and the Suva Agreement, Pacific states are embedding climate accountability into regional governance and security frameworks. By aligning with other small-island and Global South coalitions, they’re asserting influence across multiple fronts: pushing for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, supporting recognition of ecocide as a crime under the Rome Statute, and negotiating development partnerships that link adaptation financing to measurable outcomes.

The Pacific’s diplomatic strategy has become increasingly multidimensional. It still draws moral strength from lived vulnerability but couples it with procedural fluency and institutional leverage.

Re-imagining Pacific climate diplomacy

The evolution of Vanuatu’s strategy demonstrates that Pacific states are no longer content to be symbolic voices at the margins of summits. They are pursuing coalitional diplomacy that ties legal authority, moral clarity, and political solidarity together.

As Regenvanu explains, “The lesson for the world is this: adaptation is necessary, but it cannot be the whole story. We need law, justice, and collective political will. The ICJ has given us the legal foundation; now governments must translate this into action.”

His words reach beyond the Pacific. They underline that the real test of the ICJ opinion lies in the choices governments make next. It is a challenge to those with power and resources, a reminder that climate justice depends as much on political will as on legal progress.

This is what makes Vanuatu’s diplomacy so striking: it is both a legal project and a moral provocation. The ICJ campaign may have provided the framework, but figures like Regenvanu are urging the rest of the world to act, not just admire.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Young Australians in International Affairs. AI tools were used by this author for grammar checks and idea refinement, but all content is original, and no plagiarism has been used in the preparation of this article.

Mirielle Augustin is the Indo Pacific Fellow for Young Australians in International Affairs. She is completing a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours)-Humanities and Social Sciences and a Diploma of Languages at the Australian National University. Of East Timorese and Malaysian heritage, she grew up across France, Mauritania, Cameroon, Timor-Leste and Australia, which has shaped her passion for public policy, cultural diplomacy, and multilingual engagement.

Mirielle has studied and worked abroad in France and Indonesia, including programs supported by DFAT’s New Colombo Plan, and the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program in 2024. Through this Fellowship, she hopes to explore how international affairs can better reflect the lived realities of Indigenous and marginalised communities.