The Pacific archipelago, home to around 320,000 people, has struggled with natural disasters and with creeping seas starting to eat away at its fertile coastal fringe.

Trump has called climate change a "scam", made no secret of his disdain for the United Nations and pulled Washington out of the landmark Paris Agreement for a second time.

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's climate change minister, told AFP his country was "not happy" with the US withdrawal from the international climate fight and its freeze on foreign aid.

"We're all worried about the possible consequences of the anti-climate change kind of bent of the new US government," Regenvanu said in an interview.

But he said he hoped Vanuatu's "long relationship" with the United States -- including housing the largest military base in the South Pacific during World War II -- would allow the two countries to "talk about these issues".

Vanuatu's national data shows the sea level around the archipelago rose 6 millimetres (0.23 inches) per year between 1990 and 2010 -- faster than the global average.

Scientists say it is expected to rise further.

Adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change are costly, the minister said.

Pacific nations are hoping to tap alternative financial sources in the future such as taxes on fossil fuel production or for damaging the climate, he added.

"That is the place the international community has stopped at the edge of talking about. But we want to push that discussion."

Regenvanu said he also wanted to establish a blue and green bond market -- similar to what Fiji implemented in 2023 -- where money raised from investors is used to fund marine or environmental protection projects.

"We need to get the climate finance sorted out so that we can access that money that we need to build that resilient infrastructure."