Port Vila, Vanuatu, 2023, following cyclones Kevin and Judy. Photo by Clotilde Richalet / Hans Lucas / AFP

A top UN official is visiting Vanuatu to examine how climate finance might protect human rights in the island nation. Too often, development aid and climate finance are driven by the priorities of donors and are not tailored to the unique needs of island communities. This means support does not reach those who need it most, and already-vulnerable members of society miss out. Smaller grants that are designed with local experts and are accessible to more people will be key to promoting human rights while addressing climate change impacts.

UN Special Rapporteur to look at climate impacts to Pacific human rights

While COP29 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan this month, the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on climate change and human rights, Dr Elisa Mongera of Italy will be officially visiting Vanuatu from 27 November to 5 December to meet with government officials, civil society and private sector representatives about the good practices, and challenges, in the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change. Her consultations – mandated by the UN Human Rights Council at its 48^th session in October 2021 (RES/48/14) and renewed at its 57^th session in October 2024 (RES/57/31) – will inform a public report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2025.

What message should Special Rapporteur Mongera take back from the Pacific? What more can be said on Pacific climate and human security that extends the significant Pacific advocacy through the 2018 Boe Declaration on Regional Security and efforts of the Vanuatu-led global coalition to the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States relevant to climate action? What additional value might a Special Rapporteur visit to the region offer?

The Special Rapporteur’s mandate is to promote and protect human rights in the context of climate change. Dr Mongera is the second of only two UN Special Rapporteurs on climate change and human rights. The first Special Rapporteur Dr Ian Fry, a dual national of Australia and Tuvalu who held the role from 2021-2023, was instrumental in elevating attention to legal promotion and protections of human rights in climate change contexts . Human rights are a core consideration across all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) particularly Goals 13 and 14. For the Pacific, the Special Rapporteur’s efforts can contribute to ensuring that climate action and finance promote, rather than undermine, the realisation of rights to sustainable development.

A key theme the UN Special Rapporteur will explore in Vanuatu, of relevance to the wider region, is “To what extent have international climate and development cooperation contributed to (or negatively impacted) the protection of human rights? Are there any good practices that should be brought to the attention of other climate finance providers?” These questions are timely. Climate finance is a priority topic for discussion at COP29, where a New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance is being progressed. Our region is also advancing  the Blue Pacific Implementation Plan 2023-2030, guided by values of people-centred development and human rights.

Global climate finance flows to the Pacific are well below target

The Pacific’s multi-decadal global advocacy for climate finance has played a key role in producing some hard-won milestones: the 2010 establishment of the Green Climate Fund within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which agreed to mobilise USD100 billion a year by 2020 in climate finance and the 2023 agreement on the long-pursued Loss and Damage Fund. The International Monetary Fund estimates Pacific island countries need up to USD1 billion a year in financing for adaptation infrastructure alone, yet from 2014-19 only 44% of climate finance into the Pacific went towards adaptation initiatives. A lack of follow-through on climate finance commitments by high-emission states, and challenges in Pacific island countries’ access to climate finance have hampered genuine steps towards resilience of climate vulnerable communities. Official development finance to the region is increasingly focused on climate change, but has become increasingly dominated by loans, underscoring the growing economic burden on Pacific island countries to tackle climate change.

Tracking of climate finance for human rights is needed

Climate finance allocations to the region are primarily donor-driven. It is difficult to accurately quantify climate finance flows that target human rights based on current donor reporting, making it difficult to determine the effectiveness of climate finance flows into the Pacific region. Without granularity in donor reporting, funding tagged ‘climate adaptation’ can be considered a proxy for human-rights related areas such as access to water, sanitation, shelter, safety, food, livelihoods, and health services, in contrast to climate mitigation initiatives that focus on emissions reduction.

The Pacific Community’s Pacific Climate Change Finance Tracking Tool reports USD351 million in grant-based climate finance spread across 172 regional projects for the period 2010-2016, of which 79% was for climate change adaptation and 3% on disaster risk reduction. At the country level, for example, 40% of Solomons’ climate finance was allocated to water and sanitation projects; 55% of Vanuatu’s climate finance for the same period was for infrastructure projects. Overall, this suggests a broad, positive targeting of human-centred climate action within the available finance, but the Pacific remains well short of receiving what it should under UNFCCC commitments, and there is a growing adaptation funding gap.

Ongoing investment in tracking Pacific climate finance is needed. More specifically, data on how climate finance directly improves human security and by association human rights. In-country data and narratives from people living in areas most affected by the climate crisis collected by the UN Special Rapporteur is valuable for completing the picture.

A man looks through the ruins of his home in Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, after Cyclone Pam ripped through the island nation. Photo by Dave Hunt / AFP

More climate finance needs to target community resilience

Climate finance is not adequately reaching local communities, women and other vulnerable groups. The majority of Pacific climate finance into the Pacific has been short-term, project-based, and poorly integrated into broader development approaches making it harder to achieve long-term impact for communities. A shift away from the donor-centred focus of climate finance and collaborative efforts with national governments are essential to allow for more public, grants-based finance funding.

Case examples from across the Pacific show that localising climate finance, through community focused initiatives – such as targeted small grant schemes – can strengthen community resilience. Leveraging Pacific-centred facilities like the Pacific Resilience Facility – designed to better engage with governments and support community resilience – is also important. The UN Special Rapporteur can assist in amplifying these good practices that are tailored to Pacific needs and also urge international partners to engage with local expertise and reduce barriers to effectiveness.

Sending a global message on climate change and human rights

Through her visit to Vanuatu, UN Special Rapporteur Mongera provides an opportunity to amplify critical messages supporting Pacific human security in the context of climate change. There is not enough climate finance flowing into the Pacific, and those who need it most cannot access it. While international donors are part of both challenges, national government policies can contribute to the second challenge. Holding high-emitting states to account on their climate finance obligations and ensuring wider and more direct grant-based access to finance for community resilience will be key to further protecting Pacific human rights in the context of climate change.

Anna Naupa is a ni-Vanuatu PhD candidate at The Australian National University’s School of Culture, History and Language. For the past decade, she has worked across the Pacific, holding senior advisory and management roles at the Pacific Fusion Centre, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP).