Climate Vulnerable Forum

Climate Vulnerable Forum
Logo of the Climate Vulnerable Forum
Membership	43 governments (11 founding countries 32 additional members)
Leaders
• Chair	Ethiopia (2016-)
• Previous chairs	Philippines (2015–2016) Costa Rica (2013–2014) Bangladesh (2011–2013) Kiribati (2010–2011)
• Founding chair	Maldives (2009–2010)
Establishment
• Malé Declaration	10 November 2009
Website www.thecvf.org

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is a global partnership of countries that are disproportionately affected by the consequences of global warming. The forum addresses the negative effects of global warming as a result of heightened socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities. These countries actively seek a firm and urgent resolution to the current intensification of climate change, domestically and internationally.

The CVF was formed to increase the accountability of industrialized nations for the consequences of global climate change. It also aims to exert additional pressure for action to tackle the challenge, which includes local action by countries considered susceptible. Political leaders involved in this partnership are "using their status as those most vulnerable to climate change to punch far above their weight at the negotiating table". The governments which founded the CVF agree to national commitments to pursue low-carbon development and carbon neutrality.

Ethiopia became the first African Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum during the CVF High-Level Climate Policy Forum held in the Senate of the Philippines on 15 August 2016.

The Philippines was the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) and oversaw the adoption of the body’s Manila-Paris Declaration at the Third High-Level Meeting of the Forum on 30 November 2015. The Manila-Paris Declaration articulated the common concerns and commitments of vulnerable countries and urged the strengthening of the UNFCCC goal of limiting warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. During this meeting the membership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum expanded to include 23 new members.

In 2015, the twenty member countries in a forum chaired by the Philippines launched the official bloc of the forum, the 'V20' or 'Vulnerable Twenty', consisting of the top 20 nations from all over the world that are most affected by the catastrophes rooted from climate change. The members of the bloc are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Nepal, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam. During the 2nd V20 Ministerial Dialogue in April 2016 in Washington DC, the V20 recognized the 23 new members that joined the CVF in 2015 as incoming members in the V20 initiative. These countries are currently and diversely affected by various climate change problems such as super storms, storm surges, tsunamis, droughts, famine due to climate factors, food shortage as by-product of climate change, power cutting, flash floods, mud slides, desertification, heatwaves, reduction of fresh water sources, and other effects of climate change. Climate change is globally believed and scientifically proven to have incurred from the economic activities of developed and developing nations and regions such as China, the United States, and Europe.