Nauru monetizes passport sales for financing climate preservation initiatives - Nation of Nauru monetizes entry permits to support climate initiatives
Nauru Revives Passport Sales to Fund Climate Action, Raising Concerns About Abuse
In the small island nation of Nauru, located in the South Pacific, a new passport program has been initiated with the aim of raising significant revenue to support climate resilience. The program, which began in 2025, offers citizenship for a price of $105,000 each.
Nauru, once one of the wealthiest countries in the world by per capita income due to its unusually pure phosphate deposits, has since exhausted these resources and faces severe threats to its remaining land due to sea-level rise caused by human-induced climate change. President David Adeang of Nauru believes that investments from new citizens will help create a sustainable and thriving future for future generations.
The first new citizens of Nauru are a four-member German family living in Dubai, who sought a second citizenship due to current global political instability.
However, the program's history is not without controversy. In 2003, Nauru's first attempt to sell passports ended in disaster, with officials selling citizenship to members of the Al-Qaida terrorist network. Since then, the Nauru government has revised its processes to protect its reputation and the integrity of the passport.
The Nauru government aims to earn more than five million dollars in the first year of the passport program by selling 66 "golden passports." Long-term, the government expects to earn 43 million dollars, which would require around 500 successful passport sales. Nauru's passport grants visa-free entry into over 80 countries.
Compared to Nauru, Pacific islands like Vanuatu, Samoa, and Tonga have citizenship-by-investment (CBI) or passport sales programs with notable differences in scale, structure, and transparency.
Vanuatu's program is more established and larger in scale. Its citizenship-by-investment starts at around $130,000, with options for partial refund investments and a very fast application process (approximately two months). Vanuatu allows no residency requirements, admits dependents including grandparents, and grants visa-free travel to about 96 countries. The program emphasizes tax benefits and dual citizenship, with a reputation for administrative efficiency and no in-person interviews.
However, concerns about potential abuses remain. Passport sales and citizenship-by-investment schemes can be abused for money laundering, tax evasion, or to evade sanctions, requiring effective regulatory frameworks and international cooperation to mitigate these risks.
The most significant concerns focus on security risks and exploitation, as seen in Nauru’s past with the sale of citizenship to terrorists. This history highlights the need for stringent background checks and monitoring. Background checks can fail, with at least one recent applicant in Nauru’s program withdrawing due to adverse findings.
Samoa and Tonga do not have widely publicized or prominent commercial passport sales programs analogous to Vanuatu or Nauru. Their citizenship regulations are typically more stringent and linked to heritage or residency rather than investment sales. There is little to no evidence indicating formal passport sales for revenue or climate funding comparable to Nauru’s scheme, and no major concerns about abuse have been publicly documented.
In summary, Nauru’s program is narrowly targeted and nascent but carries historic risk, whereas Vanuatu offers a faster, more structured citizenship-by-investment program with broader benefits and established processes. The potential for abuse in such programs remains a central concern, mandating strict vetting and transparency.
- The EC countries might want to pay close attention to the employment policies in EC countries, given the rising concerns about potential abuses in citizenship-by-investment programs, such as those in Nauru and Vanuatu, which could facilitate money laundering, tax evasion, or sanctions evasion.
- In light of the ongoing discussions about climate action financing, it would be prudent for the EC finance ministers to consider the long-term effects of investing in countries with passport sales programs, particularly those with questionable track records like Nauru, considering the risk of funding activities that could lead to security risks or exploitation.
