IMF Staff Country Reports

Vanuatu: Selected Issues

September 3, 2024

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Format: Chicago

International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept "Vanuatu: Selected Issues", IMF Staff Country Reports 2024, 279 (2024), accessed October 19, 2024, https://doi.org/10.5089/9798400288272.002

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Summary

This Selected Issues paper discusses sea-level rise impacts and adaptation in Vanuatu. Sea-level will continue to increase during this century directly caused by global warming and melting of terrestrial ice. While Vanuatu cannot control global sea-level, it can manage how it affects the country by adapting. Staff analysis estimates the cost of sea-level rise under alternative adaptation strategies: (1) no-adaptation; (2) protection; and (3) planned retreat. Such analysis can help the government to identify trade-offs between efficiency and equity, and choose according to the preferences of the population, consistent with public finance objectives. Preliminary results show that complete protection of coastal areas in Vanuatu is costly while planned retreat from the coastline is the least-cost adaptation response. However, given the mountainous nature of the islands, only small areas of the main population centers of Port Vila and Luganville are at risk of being permanently inundated even with very high sea level rise.

Subject: Climate change, Cross country analysis, Environment, Environmental policy, Natural disasters, Population and demographics

Keywords: Adaptation in Vanuatu, Climate change, Environmental policy, Global, Natural disasters, Sea-level rise, Summary statistics, Surface temperature, Vanuatu with CIAM

Publication Details

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