ActionAid Vanuatu’s country manager Flora Vano will be testifying remotely from Vanuatu to the ICJ hearing on 3 December. Before giving her testimony, she said:
“Climate change has shattered our lives. It’s stolen our livelihoods, our food, and our peace. Our waters are poisoned, our lands barren. Women and children bear the heaviest burden, walking endless miles for scarce, clean water. We are trapped in a cycle of destruction, unable to recover.
We have lost to climate crises, the tears we shed when we are helpless, and the pain we endure because of the loss we encounter. In our communities, we are constantly preparing, but we have never recovered. We need to save the nation for future generations.
World leaders hear our plea. This isn’t fiction; it’s our daily reality. Stop fossil fuel extraction and take responsibility for the pollution. We need rich polluting countries to fund our adaptation, mitigation, and recovery with grants, not loans. This will allow us to rebuild and thrive, for the sake of our children and their children.”
Ends
Flora is available for media interviews.
For media inquiries, please contact the Press Office at media-enquiries@actionaid.org or via WhatsApp at +263776665065.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.