{"id":426683,"date":"2026-02-16T18:21:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426683"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:21:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T17:21:58","slug":"al-jazeera-usa-is-pressuring-vanuatu-into-dropping-icj-climate-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426683","title":{"rendered":"Al Jazeera: USA is Pressuring Vanuatu into Dropping ICJ Climate Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Vanuatu Presidential Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al Jazeera claims to have seen a leaked memo detailing the USA\u2019s \u201cstrong objections\u201d to Vanuatu\u2019s actions. But there is a lot more to this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

US pressures Vanuatu at UN over ICJ\u2019s landmark climate change ruling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cable seen by Al Jazeera says the US \u2018strongly objects\u2019 to the island nation seeking support for ICJ\u2019s landmark climate ruling.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Lyndal Rowlands<\/a> and News Agencies
Published On 14 Feb 202614 Feb 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A US State Department cable seen by Al Jazeera on Saturday says that the Trump administration \u201cstrongly objects\u201d to the proposed resolution being circulated by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu in support of last year\u2019s ruling by the ICJ \u2013 the UN\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are strongly urging Vanuatu to immediately withdraw its draft resolution and cease attempting to wield the Court\u2019s Advisory Opinion as a basis for creating an avenue to pursue any misguided claims of international legal obligations,\u201d a copy of the cable seen by Al Jazeera states.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Louis Charbonneau, Human Rights Watch\u2019s director at the UN, urged support for Vanuatu\u2019s draft resolution on Friday, saying \u201cgovernments should live up to their obligation\u201d to protect human rights around the world by protecting the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResponsible governments shouldn\u2019t allow themselves to be bullied by those that reject the global scientific consensus and continue to support reliance on harmful fossil fuels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/14\/us-pressures-vanuatu-at-un-over-icjs-landmark-climate-change-ruling<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Vanuatu has one of the nicest cultures of any place I\u2019ve ever visited, especially outside the capital Port Vila. My favourite place was Port Luganville<\/a>. I decided to walk back into town from my cruise, when a tour operator who had just finished dropping everyone off at the cruise liner asked if I wanted a lift. I said \u201csure, thanks\u201d, then asked them where the best steak restaurant was. They took me to a place where for US $3 I had one of the best steaks I\u2019ve ever eaten \u2013 raising beef cattle is big business in Vanuatu. The tour operators who gave me a lift, I offered to buy them lunch or a beer, to say thank you for showing me the restaurant, they said, \u201csorry, we\u2019ve got to get back to work\u201d. That was my lasting impression of Luganville \u2013 tropical paradise, no hustle, people dressed in rags waving and smiling from across the street, no panhandlers, and lots of kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanuatu\u2019s capital city Port Vila<\/a> is faster paced. You have to be more careful in Port Vila<\/a>. Like most poor nations, in Vanuatu you are most likely to get into trouble in the capital city. But even so the crime risk in most of Port Vila is nothing like the scale of crime risk you face in cities like Fiji\u2019s Suva<\/a> or Phillipines Manila<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly no place is perfect. In Vanuatu, some of the people nobody wants in their village leave and become politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The locals I spoke to hate their politicians, but in a place like Vanuatu, there\u2019s not a lot an ordinary person can do to stop questionable use of public funds. A taxi driver who took me on a tour around Port Vila, pointing out the sites, described the parliament building as \u201ccorruption house number one\u201d. Then he pointed to a large, under-utilised convention center built with Chinese money and said \u201ccorruption house number two\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanuatu is drowning in debt, they signed up to Belt and Road in 2018, and have struggled with repayments ever since. There are real concerns that borrowed money has been wasted, including questions over the \u201cgifted\u201d Chinese money used to build the Vanuatu Presidential Palace<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure most Vanuatu people are horrified their government is taking actions which are offending the USA. The people of Vanuatu love the USA, they have a story telling culture, and there are powerful cultural memories of how the USA built a large military base to defend Vanuatu against the Japanese in WW2<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I doubt Vanuatu will back off from pursuing climate claims against the USA<\/strong>, no matter how much ICJ climate court action offends the USA or upsets the Vanuatu people. The Vanuatu government is too desperate for cash, and are utterly desperate to keep their Chinese creditors happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would China lend so much money to a place which obviously can\u2019t pay them back? <\/strong>Why would China want a small island nation under their thumb, a place so mired in debt they stay afloat only by the generosity of their Chinese creditors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only the Chinese know what they are thinking when they lent Vanuatu all that money, but it\u2019s interesting that not all the infrastructure loans were wasted.<\/strong> That Luganville port my cruise liner docked at \u2013 a surprisingly good port for such as low income place. For some reason when Vanuatu asked the Chinese to build a civilian port for the tourist industry, the Chinese instead built a military grade deep water port of thick reinforced concrete, large enough for warships.<\/a> I\u2019m sure that was all just some kind of misunderstanding, nothing to do with Espiritu Santo, the island where the city of Luganville is, being a mountainous place with lots of rugged defensible terrain, a mere 1200 miles from the North East coast of Australia. I\u2019m sure its also just a coincidence that Australia recently reinforced<\/a> a major combined army and air force base in Townsville<\/a>, close to the shortest sea route between Luganville and the Australian coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you do visit Vanuatu, and you will have a wonderful time if you do, you still need to take precautions. Make sure you purchase top quality holiday health insurance. Vanuatu\u2019s medical system is a little basic. Seek medical advice before you travel. If you have any serious health problems you\u2019ll probably need a medivac to Brisbane or Singapore. Bring some Malaria pills<\/a>, and ensure you have all the usual vaccinations for visiting such places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vanuatu is a lovely place to visit with a laid-back friendly culture, by far my favourite Pacific Island holiday destination. But one area where corners have been cut due to public cash shortages is mosquito spraying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al Jazeera claims to have seen a leaked memo detailing the USA\u2019s \u201cstrong objections\u201d to Vanuatu\u2019s actions. But there is a lot more to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":426687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818341,691841430,691818994,691818056,691831896,691841428,691824179,691833487],"class_list":{"0":"post-426683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-chinese-built-palace","10":"tag-climate-action","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-international-court-of-justice-icj","13":"tag-pacific-island-nation-of-vanuatu","14":"tag-united-nations-un","15":"tag-us-president-donald-j-trump","17":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0AQOxVNDJagEXcpqcxIeMI_OCDKbRCdWH4PELuZbxbSuyhH9mfli1HzD3EhjAAvmoZFvN6uIqBg11fwgmgwi9kgePsWiGGY5fDYp6XMjCL-ROy_3x4QvIRNICOvjKW9A-1.jpeg?fit=1583%2C931&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1MZZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":250136,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=250136","url_meta":{"origin":426683,"position":0},"title":"Sorry, Vanuatu, Trends Don\u2019t Support Climate Damages Claims in The Hague","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/03\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"While Vanuatu claims is it particularly vulnerable to likely impacts of climate change, there are no specific harms it can attribute to human induced climate change.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1229.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1229.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1229.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1229.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-1229.png?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":205020,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=205020","url_meta":{"origin":426683,"position":1},"title":"The Court Ruling which could Outlaw Climate Skepticism","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Essay by Eric Worrall Vanuatu has urged Australia to join its push to have the United Nations International Court of Justice rule that states are \u201cobliged to use all the means at its disposal in order to avoid activities\u201d which lead to more CO2 emissions. 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