Australia’s conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Scott Morrison will come under increased pressure to boost Australia’s climate change commitments when he attends the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) this week.
The Fijian prime minister’s presence at a Pacific island leaders meeting this week is a sign to Mr Morrison of just how seriously the region is taking climate change.
AAP Newsagency reports while Fiji has attended PIF in recent years, Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama vowed in 2015 to not personally attend the forum until Australia and New Zealand’s influence on the meeting was dealt with.
However, he’s expected to have a significant voice when he makes his return this year, Pacific policy expert Dr Tess Newton Cain told AAP
Mr Morrison is attending the PIF on Wednesday in Tuvalu’s capital, Funafuti, where the main issue is securing the region’s future.
For Pacific island nations, this means dealing with climate change, with pressure already on Australia to increase its emissions reduction goal and to step away from coal.
These calls were part of the Nadi Bay Declaration, which was agreed to by the smaller island nations last week.
“Mr Bainimarama expects more from Australia and he expects more from Mr Morrison personally on this issue of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pacific, when it comes to addressing climate change at the global level,” Dr Newton Cain told AAP.
Mr Bainimarama has already warned the smaller nations to not let Australia water down climate commitments that come from the forum.
The forum comes after last year’s Boe Declaration, which said climate change was the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of people in the Pacific.
Tuvalu is made up of nine small coral islands and is at the forefront of climate change, with fears such islands could be uninhabitable as early as 2030.
Minister for the Pacific Alex Hawke will be Australia’s face at the forum before Mr Morrison’s arrival, beginning with a day of climate change discussions today.
The Pacific islands want to talk about mitigating climate change, but Australia will try to focus on projects helping the region deal with climate impacts.
“We have hundreds of millions of investments in those projects and other mitigation works that are undertaken throughout the region,” Mr Morrison said after the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Cairns on Friday.
He has also pledged to end recycling exports to countries where the waste is at risk of ending up in waterways, demonstrating Australia’s “commitment to a cleaner blue in the Pacific”.
New Zealand has traditionally been in lockstep with Australia at similar forums but its climate policies are taking in a different direction.
NZ has an ambitious target of net zero emissions by 2050 and its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, will play a key diplomatic role.
“Ms Ardern will be very cognisant of the fact that Mr Morrison really doesn’t have a lot to offer on emissions because he’s got no mandate the domestic policy and domestic politics don’t allow for it,” Dr Newton Cain said.
“She may be part of what’s needed to get everybody through to the end, and a communique that everyone’s happy to sign up to.”
Despite the Pacific’s efforts, Australia’s emissions reduction target remains at 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, with the contentious use of credits from previous agreements to reach that goal.
Regional security issues relating to China’s presence in the region are expected to bubble in the background but the Pacific nations will try to steer discussions back to climate concerns.
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