It's 29C in the water of the reef which frames Mangaliliu Village, home to 500 people on the western side of Vanuatu's main island of Efate.
It's so warm that most of the coral has been bleached white, a stark contrast to the brightly coloured tropical fish that dart about.
Angelfish with glowing yellow heads and bright blue bodies, black and white butterfly fish, and orange and black clownfish furiously fluttering around the anemones.
In terms of reef fish, snorkelling here rivals that along Queensland's Great Barrier Reef 30 years ago.
But just like in Australia, climate change is threatening Vanuatu's reefs.
Colourful fish share the Vanuatu seabed with coral that is losing its natural colour due to rising temperatures. Credit: Max Zacharie
Paradise lost?
At first glance Mangaliliu — which locals say means "you get a surprise when you come back" — is, to borrow a cliché, an untouched paradise.
But this untouched paradise is being touched by pollution emitted from nations around the world, contributing to global warming.
The warming ocean isn't just bleaching coral, it's bringing destruction to the village as .
Mangaliliu Village Chief Mormor Kalsau has been out on the reef with local teenage boys in search of the green sea turtles that frequent the waters here.
Village chief Mormor Kalsau goes snorkelling.
"I've already told the community now the climate is changing so we must try to defend ourselves, so do not build your houses near the sea," Kalsau said.
Local fishermen are also finding it harder to make a living.
Roawia Marine snorkelling and conservation owner Max Zacharie has been replanting coral destroyed by the cyclones and has witnessed some early signs of hope.
"You can start to see the little fishes are hanging around the coral which is interesting. That's my dream … my vision that in the future there will be lots and lots of fish and it will help with food security for my community," he said.
Max Zacharie runs a snorkelling business in Vanuatu.
Kalora holds a parrotfish caught the previous day and its aqua body glistens in the sun.
"You go out to the deep water to catch fish like this but they don't grow big like the ones before," he said.
The parrotfish is just one of the tropical fish that tourists encounter while snorkelling Vanuatu's reefs.
Compassion fatigue among Australians
Australian tourist visitor numbers in Vanuatu peaked in 2019, with 63,000 people holidaying there pre-COVID.
Australians are leading the tourism industry recovery in Vanuatu, with October 2023 figures indicating 60 per cent of visitors were from Australia.
According to the Vanuatu Tourism Office, tourism contributes 18 per cent directly to Vanuatu's economy, and 46 per cent indirectly.
Australian National University associate professor Siobhan McDonnell has been working with the Vanuatu government, negotiating at the annual UN Climate Change Conference.
She said through tourism, Australians have a deep connection with Vanuatu, and after , many Australians donated money to assist with the country's recovery.
"They really gave with their hearts but with each additional cyclone, there has been significantly less giving," she said.
"Australians get more used to the narrative that cyclones occur repeatedly in Vanuatu. It becomes a repeated disaster and people are less likely to give."
Coral on the seabed in vanuatu. Credit: Max Zacharie
Financial challenges
Despite being only 20km away, it takes almost an hour to drive back to the capital of Port Vila from Mangaliliu.
The only main road around the island of Efate is littered with potholes, the result of heavy rain and cyclones.
Vanuatu's climate change minister Ralph Regenvanu wants to fix the roads and replace the bitumen with concrete, but he lives in a country that doesn't have the money needed to adapt to climate change.
"All the countries in the world are experiencing the effects of climate change. The difference in places like Vanuatu is the ability to respond and recover," he said.
Vanuatu has spent decades using diplomacy at the annual UN Climate Change Conference meetings, asking wealthy polluting countries to compensate Pacific islands under threat from climate change.
The court challenge
Vanuatu is now leading a push for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to hand down an advisory opinion on what responsibility countries such as Australia have for not reducing fossil fuels, and compensating other countries that are being harmed by climate change.
At the heart of the legal challenge is the Paris Agreement – a legally binding international treaty on climate change signed in 2015 at the UN's COP21 which seeks to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
"We all know how we've already missed the 1.5-degree target, pretty much, which we all agreed to back in Paris," Regenvanu said.
"We know we're not meeting the financial commitment targets that we all agreed to and so if we are signing up to agreements and not doing what we said we'd do, are there any consequences under international law?"
Is Australia liable?
University of Melbourne professor Jacqui Peel is an expert in international climate change law.
Peel told SBS that the ICJ isn't issuing a binding ruling that will hold a particular country like Australia liable for greenhouse gas emissions.
She said accountability will come as countries use the ruling not to sue each other but to take legal actions in their own courts against governments and companies.
Peel expects an ICJ ruling could "open up new claims against the Australian government or companies in Australia over their responsibility for addressing climate change impacts".
According to the CSIRO, Australia is the world's 14th-highest emitter of greenhouse gases, contributing just over one per cent of global emissions.
Peel said the ICJ finding could also help Vanuatu and other vulnerable Pacific Islands nations receive more money from the loss and damage fund .
Vanuatu has been calling for such a fund to be established since the 1990s.
Back in Vanuatu, Regenvanu expects the ICJ will hand down its advisory opinion next year, which could lead to a reduction in fossil fuel emissions and potential compensation.
Regenvanu is already thinking about what legal action his country can take.
"We may choose, for example, as a country like Vanuatu, to sue some of the big fossil fuel companies in court," he said.
Village life
In Mangaliliu Village it may already be too late.
Elizabeth Kalotiti is working in her lush tropical garden where she grows fruit like bananas that she cares for by hand.
Like many in Vanuatu, she relies on her garden to feed her family.
Elizabeth Kalotiti and her family subsist on their kitchen garden, like many residents of Vanuatu.
"The yam didn't grow good … it's small size," Kalotiti said.
She will replant the yams under the shade of her banana tree in the hope that, by Easter, they will grow larger and there might be brighter days ahead.
“With climate change, we face a hard time with our crops … but we thank God, he gave us a good life and the strength to work and gain what we have to live and move on."
