‘We don’t want all the fluffy stuff’: Pacific islands push Australia to take strong action on climate

Anthony Albanese had just finished briefing Pacific island leaders on Australia’s bid to host a UN climate summit when one of his counterparts made a pointed intervention.

The president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, began her speech diplomatically, saying she was “grateful” for the update and hoped the initiative was a “true” partnership with the Pacific.

Heine then sharpened her language.

“Action starts at home,” she told the Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit in Tonga, according to sources who were in the room.

“As well as we demand that others act, we need to show the efforts and sacrifices we have made.”

Heine said she hoped Australia would “have a good story to tell at Cop31” in 2026, particularly when it came to the transition away from fossil fuels.

The message was reinforced the following day by a declaration from a minister from Tuvalu that “opening, subsidising and exporting fossil fuels is immoral and unacceptable” .

Climate campaigners say the interventions are a sign that Pacific nations are growing impatient with the pace of Australia’s pledges to kick the fossil fuel habit, even if there is no sign that they will formally abandon support for the co-hosted conference.

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‘Fluffy stuff’

The Australian government has presented the idea of hosting the 2026 climate summit, in partnership with the Pacific, as a chance to elevate Pacific voices.

Related: Pacific Islands Forum communique taken down after Chinese envoy calls Taiwan reference ‘unacceptable’

On the sidelines of this week’s meetings in the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa, climate campaigners said that meant Australia – the world’s third biggest fossil fuel exporter on an energy basis – must step up.

Alisi Rabukawaqa, from the Pacific Climate Warriors network, gave her take on what a successful Cop31 partnership with Australia would look like.

“It doesn’t mean a good meeting where we all come in and have a multicultural, all-encompassing opening ceremony that shows Pacific culture and languages, beautiful colours and flowers,” she said at one side-event.

“I mean, that is what we are all about. That’s beautiful. But what we want for a successful Cop31 is tangible action from Australia. We don’t want all the fluffy stuff.”

Speaking at the same 350.org event, Tuvalu’s climate minister, Maina Talia, recounted an “interesting” recent meeting with his Australian counterpart, Chris Bowen, “to socialise the idea of hosting the Cop31 not just as an Australian Cop but as a Pacific Cop”.

Talia suggested certain agenda items or pre-Cop events could be hosted by different Pacific islands.

He said he could sense a “dynamic shift” and that Australia was “more flexible at the moment”, although he underlined the need to continue “keeping our counterpart accountable for their actions”.

A clean break

Albanese assured his Pacific counterparts this week that he understood Australia’s responsibilities as a developed nation.

According to sources in the room, he said the clean energy transition was a major focus in Australia’s political debate – an oblique reference to domestic pushback from the Coalition. The discussion was largely focused on the domestic transition rather than fossil fuel exports.

Turkey, a rival bidder for the same conference, also addressed Pacific leaders and has so far given no sign of backing away from its hosting proposal.

Related: ‘Immoral and unacceptable’: Tuvalu calls on Australia to set urgent deadline to end fossil fuels

There is an expectation the host will be decided by the time of the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan in November, although Albanese told leaders on Wednesday he hoped to “resolve” it with Turkey before then.

Since winning the 2022 election, Labor has sought to draw a sharp line between it and the former Coalition government, insisting that its more ambitious commitments on the climate crisis are a sign it is listening to the Pacific.

In Fiji, on her first trip to the region after being sworn in as foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong said Australia under past governments had “neglected its responsibility to act on climate” and showed disrespect to Pacific nations – but she wanted to “assure you that we have heard you”.

This included enshrining in law its commitment to cut emissions by 43% against 2005 levels by 2030, on the way to net zero by 2050.

The government also wants to ensure 82% of Australia’s energy supply is renewable by 2030. But questions have been raised about whether the renewables rollout is proceeding at the pace needed to achieve this.

“I think the overwhelming sense I’m getting from many [Pacific] political leaders is one of desperation,” the chief councillor of the Climate Council, Tim Flannery, told the Guardian on the sidelines of the Pif meetings.

“They’re looking at the figures for warming this year and parts per million – unprecedented – and seeing that they have got so little leeway before their nations are really seriously threatened by rising seas or more extreme weather events. And so that desperation is really, I think, driving a sense that we need to do something together with Australia.”

That means Australia’s continued approval of new or expanded coal and gas developments was a “stumbling block” with the Pacific, Flannery said.

“Australia, at the moment, is in a position where we’re still licensing new fossil fuel developments, where the science is very, very clear that in order to stay within the safety rails, the guardrails of the climate system, we can’t afford to open any new fossil fuel resources.”

Being a good neighbour

Still, Albanese powered ahead with his message of “climate ambition” this week. He joined with the prime minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo, to ratify their climate and security deal recognising the low-lying Pacific nation is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise.

Under a plan labelled “human mobility with dignity”, Australia is offering to issue 280 visas a year to people from Tuvalu.

The Falepili Union – a term that evokes the spirit of being a good neighbour – also commits Australia to help Tuvalu with coastal adaptation work, to advocate for these efforts internationally, and to assist in a natural disaster.

And, in a measure that has largely flown under the radar, Australia has committed to recognising Tuvalu’s continuing statehood and sovereignty even after sea level rise affects boundaries that otherwise would apply.

“This is a world-first agreement, and it will make an enormous difference,” Albanese said on Thursday.

“One of the things that I continue to say is that the key to the door of … engagement in the Pacific, and indeed around the world, is taking action on climate change. My government is.”

Albanese said people “still talk about the Pif meeting that was held in Tuvalu prior to my government coming to office”. That is a reference to the 2019 talks where Scott Morrison was accused by Fiji of taking a “very insulting and condescending” approach, with Australia’s red lines on the climate crisis causing an extraordinary rift.

“Australia, at that time, was certainly in the corner at those meetings,” Albanese said. “We’re now front and centre.”

Indeed, Friday’s communique said plainly that leaders “welcomed the update” by Australia on the Cop31 bid “and further, its commitment to hosting it in partnership with the Pacific region”.

It also welcomed Australia’s promised $100m towards the new region-led climate fund, the Pacific Resilience Facility.

And while still stressing the urgency of the climate crisis, the communique did not explicitly mention fossil fuels.

‘A very difficult place to be’

Shiva Gounden, the head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said many countries in the Pacific saw value in having a co-hosted climate conference to “give them a platform to showcase the reality of what the Pacific faces” and also to “guide the policy decisions that are made”.

Fossil fuels continued to be a sticking point, even if most Pacific leaders are pulling their punches about Australia for pragmatic reasons at this time.

“It’s a very difficult place to be for Pacific island countries that rely on Australia in terms of foreign aid and monetary and climate finance assistance,” Gounden said on the sidelines of the talks in Nuku’alofa.

“But we do need our Pacific leaders to speak out more, especially if we want this Cop in the Pacific to be about the Pacific and to achieve the most ambitious climate actions.”