Pacific island leaders are calling on the government to lift its ambition on climate change, with two former presidents saying Australia’s bid to host a UN climate conference is at odds with its support for new coal and gas projects.
Former Kiribati president Anote Tong and former Palau president Tommy Remengesau Jr have been meeting MPs in Canberra this week to urge greater cuts to Australia’s emissions as well as a moratorium on new coal and gas projects.
Tong said while the region welcomed the Albanese government’s “much more proactive stance on climate change”, it believed Australia’s climate policies could be made more ambitious before they were set in stone.
“There is still some way between [the current situation] and … what the science indicates is needed in order to be able to avert this impending disaster,” Tong said.
“For countries like ours, our future is really at stake.
“Unless we can do more on climate change, our future – the future of my grandchildren, our grandchildren – will be at stake. And so hopefully Australia, having made that commitment, will be able to make deeper cuts into the future.”
Over the weekend, in response to a high tide, Tong’s family was forced to bring new sand and gravel to his house to augment a sea wall that was no longer adequate for keeping rising sea levels at bay.
He said while he understood these commitments took time, nature was “giving a very strong signal” that there was limited time to act, with concerns that countries such as Kiribati may be uninhabitable by 2060.
He also said “it would appear to be a contradiction” for Australia to bid to host the UN climate conference Cop29 in partnership with Pacific island nations while it was still supporting new fossil fuel projects.
“It doesn’t make sense. We support Australia hosting because it would be in our part of the world, and we would be part of it, but to be a part of something that’s not doing the right thing is wrong, and so hopefully Australia will make a decision on what to do on the coal question.”
Remengesau Jr said Pacific island nations were facing a “very delicate, very perilous moment” in our history and called on Australia to take a leadership role.
“Our message really is to come here and emphasise the need for family action and Australia needs to take the lead when it comes to the issues of climate change,” he said.
He said hosting the Cop would be a good opportunity to demonstrate Australia’s bolstered action on climate change, saying: “We want Australia, as the big brother, to set the tone and walk the talk for all of us.”
“I think that will be a perfect opportunity for the Pacific to come together truly, as a Pacific family, and show the rest of the world that we are doing something meaningful in our own backyard – that we mean what we say, and that these are the steps and the progress that we’re taking, and therefore we deserve to let the world come to our backyard and show them what we have done.
“We cannot morally feel right to ask people to come when we’re not doing enough ourselves as a family.”
The independent senator David Pocock praised the advocacy of the two leaders, and said he would be using his position in the Senate to push the government to match its rhetoric on support for the Pacific with action.
“They’ve shown the leadership that we’ve been missing here in Australia, where political leaders actually look ahead and say ‘this is the big challenge we face, and we are actually going to deal with it now’.
“And so I really hope that our new government is serious, and as an independent I have the opportunity to play my role in pushing them on that, to actually act in line with what the community wants here in Australia and what our Pacific island nation neighbours want.”
