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.
See the full statement following the Oceania Anglican Leader Fono.
Between April 9 and 16, 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.
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Photo credit: Anglican Taonga
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.
Oceania Anglican leaders are asking for Anglican churches to advocate for their Governments to meet their obligations under Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, which states that: ‘developed country Parties shall provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties with respect to both [climate change] mitigation and adaptation’.
As well as requiring developed nations to support restoration of ecosystems, early warning systems and resilience-enhancing infrastructure, through both finance and technology, the ICJ legal opinion calls for consideration of affected peoples’ human rights to an environment that sustains healthy communities, particularly noting the cultural and self-determination rights of Indigenous peoples.
With all of the Anglican Churches in the Oceania region home to island communities at direct risk of climate-related disasters, the move to shift finance toward adaptation for the nations most threatened by climate change could help ensure communities served by Oceania’s Anglican churches have a better chance to survive and flourish into the future, even as the climate changes.
The Fono also committed the region’s churches to reconsider their own investment strategies, including the challenge of more direct church investment into Pacific climate resilience programmes.
The Archbishops and General Secretaries concluded the climate-related portion of their April meeting by agreeing to convene an additional Fono, which will look at how Anglican Churches can build initiatives to foster climate resilience and disaster preparedness in their communities and across the region.
In their official statement from the meeting, the Fono members agreed to:
Call upon the Anglican Communion to support Vanuatu’s United Nations General Assembly initiative recognising the [July 2025] ICJ advisory opinion,
Review investment policies in light of best practice in climate justice, and
Convene a special FONO focused on disasters and disaster preparedness.
The Oceania Anglican Fono also committed to reviewing the holistic impact of migrant worker schemes across the Pacific and to work on developing the network of Pacific Anglican centres for theological education.
At the same time as the Fono convened in Melanesia, Anglicans in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia have also been undertaking a 50-day voyage aboard a traditional Polynesian-style canoe (vaka), the Uto Ni Yalo.
Photo credit: Islands Business
The Expedition is known as the Soko ni Nuinui (Sails of Hope) initiative, which combines Indigenous traditional Pacific ocean-faring wisdom and stewardship knowledge with Christian theology and climate science to engage churches and communities as protectors of oceans as the lungs of God’s created Earth. The core vision of the initiative centres on the theme ‘We Are the Ocean,’ reflecting a deep connection between the Moana (ocean) and the community’s identity, mission and unity.
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More information
See the full statement following the Oceania Anglican Leader Fono.
Find out more about the Fiji Sails of Hope voyage led by the Climate Commission of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.
From the highest levels of diplomatic advocacy at the United Nations to the planting of trees in local dioceses, Anglicans are united in responding to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Find out more about how Anglicans from around the Communion are advocating for the environment and sustainable development.
Find out about the Anglican Communion’s Lungs of the Earth campaign, which involves advocacy for oceans as one of the earth’s vital ecosystems.