The Primates and General Secretaries of the Anglican Provinces in Oceania have called on Member Churches around the Anglican Communion to advocate with their Governments on behalf of Pacific Island states and other nations heavily impacted by climate change
Anglican leaders from the Anglican Church in Australia, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea and Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia were hosted in Vanuatu by the Diocese of Central Vanuatu and New Caledonia (Anglican Church of Melanesia). The gathering was the 7th annual meeting of the Oceania Anglican Fono (council), which concluded with an action plan on climate change, regional labour schemes and Anglican theological education across Oceania.
Following the meeting, the Fono of Oceania’s Anglican leaders has called for support from across the Anglican Communion for Vanuatu’s push to implement ‘polluter pays’ financial consequences on high-polluting UN member states.
Anglicans are being asked to stand with Vanuatu as it backs the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 23 July 2025 Advisory Opinion that finds a case for imposing financial damages on member states that have long-since engaged in polluting activities that worsen atmospheric damage.
The ICJ finding shows that the nations responsible for the majority of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and which fail to meet internationally-agreed reduction targets, cannot be allowed to hand the financial burden of climate change mitigation onto the most-affected developing and island nations.
The ICJ has found that developed nations’ high emissions exacerbate extreme weather, sea-level rise, and desertification, while the same low-emitting nations are now forced to bear the costs of disasters caused by others’ excesses.
Source: ACNS