PORT VILA: Vanuatu is drawing up plans to relocate `dozens` of villages within the next two years, as they come under threat from rising seas, the Pacific nation`s climate chief said on Thursday.

Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu said dealing with the impact of global warming was a major challenge facing Vanuatu`s 300,000 inhabitants who live on a chain of islands strung out between Australia and Fiji.

Regenvanu said the response would inevitably involve relocating long-established communities from coastal areas,where climate change is pushing sea levels higher and fuelling more extreme storms.

He said Vanuatu`s government has identified `dozens` of villages in `atrisk areas` to be relocated `within the next 24 months` while other settlements have also been earmarked to move in the longer term.

`Climate displacement of populations is the main feature of our future. We have to be ready for it and plan for it now,` said Regenvanu, who tool( over his ministerial portfolio after a snap elec-tion in October.

`It`s going to be a huge challenge and a huge tragedy for many people who would have to leave their ancestral land to move to other places, but that`s the reality.` Low-lying Pacific island nations, like Vanuatu, are already experiencing the impact of climate change.

Half of Vanuatu`s population was affected when Cyclone Pam battered the capital Port Vila in 2015, killing a dozen people, destroying crops and leaving thousands homeless.-AFP