Unless stronger action is taken to mitigate the climate change impacts on islands in the region Pacific island leaders have said Australia’s so-called Pacific step-up policy will fail.
The Pacific leaders insist climate change, not China, will top the agenda when they meet in Tuvalu this month as western-aligned nations push to curb Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
The French newsagency AFP reports that once regarded as a sleepy backwater of the diplomatic world, the islands are now a hotbed of aid projects and charm offensives as anxiety over China’s presence grows.
Australia has labelled its campaign the Pacific step-up, New Zealand has the Pacific Reset and Britain the Pacific Uplift, while the United States, Japan, and France have also intensified their efforts to court the region.
However, local leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu from August 13 to 16 are wary their concerns will be sidelined if they become pawns in a wider power struggle.
The 16-member forum mainly consists of small island nations, along with Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand.
PIF secretary-general Dame Meg Taylor said the forum, whose members collectively refer to themselves as the Blue Pacific, was at a pivotal moment in its history.
“While we are the subject of the geopolitical manoeuvring and strategies of others, the Blue Pacific collective remains focused on charting our own destiny,” she said.
The primary concern for island leaders, many of whom live in low-lying nations threatened by rising seas, is climate change.
In a pointed message to Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government, Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga has warned Australia’s step-up strategy will fail unless it finally takes meaningful action to address the issue.
“They know very well that we will not be happy as a partner, to move forward, unless they are serious,” he said.
The Pacific islands dropped off the radar for major powers as other regions took priority, a fact recently acknowledged by Britain’s High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke.
“Quite frankly we stepped back too much from our Pacific friends and partners,” she said.
China has been active in the Pacific for well over a decade and, though it still ranks far behind Australia as the region’s biggest aid donor, there is growing discomfort over its interest in an area Australia regards as its sphere of influence.
AFP reports regional heavyweights, particularly Australia, fear the ultimate aim is to set up a naval base in the Pacific, which would dramatically increase Beijing’s military footprint in the area.
Such a move would potentially negate the geographic remoteness that provides Australia and New Zealand with a valuable defence buffer.
Whether real or imagined, the possibility has long dominated strategic thinking among Australia and its allies about the islands, said Dr Wesley Morgan, a lecturer in international affairs at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
“These countries are significant players in global politics in their own right,” he added, pointing out it was the islands that helped put climate change on the international agenda.
Dr Morgan said Pacific leaders regarded climate change as a greater security risk than China and expected those operating in the region to respect their concerns.
He said there was particular disappointment that Australia, led by climate-sceptic Prime Minister Scott Morrison, was dismissive about an issue its neighbours see as an existential threat.
While Australia had paid lip service to environmental concerns, Dr Morgan said island nations were acutely aware that, in real terms, it was set to miss its Paris Agreement emissions targets and had recently approved construction of a major new coal mine.
Pacific leaders have become increasingly critical of Australia ahead of the Tuvalu meeting and Dr Morgan said they were unlikely to prioritise Australia’s security concerns regarding China when their own were not being taken seriously.
“As long as countries like Australia fail to take adequate steps to tackle climate change it will undermine their attempts to win over the Pacific,” he said.
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