Lack of climate policy threatens to trip up Australian diplomacy this summit season

Australia has navigated a somewhat stormy passage through the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru. Scott Morrison’s new-look government faced renewed accusations at the summit about the strength of Australia’s resolve on climate policy.

Australia’s climate stance risks its standing on the world stage.

Australia is neither a small nation nor one of the most powerful, but for many years it has been a trusted nation. Historically, Australia has been seen as a good international citizen, a country that stands by its international commitments and works with others to improve the international system, not undermine it.

But in recent years climate change has threatened this reputation. This is especially so among our allies and neighbours in the Pacific region, who attended this week’s Nauru summit.

Read the piece from The Conversation by Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow from the Australian National University, Christian Downie - “Lack of climate policy threatens to trip up Australian diplomacy this summit season.”

For Pacific Island nations, rising sea levels are a bigger security concern than rising Chinese influence

When the Pacific Islands Forum is held in Nauru from September 1, one of the main objectives will be signing a wide-ranging security agreement that covers everything from defence and law and order concerns to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

Malcolm Turnbull promised to ‘step up’ Australian engagement
with the Pacific last year. Will it continue now that he’s gone?

The key question heading into the forum is: can the agreement find a balance between the security priorities of Australia and New Zealand and the needs of the Pacific Island nations?

Even though new Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not attending the forum, sending Foreign Minister Marise Payne instead, the Biketawa Plus security agreement remains a key aim for Canberra.

The original Biketawa Declaration was developed as a response to the 2000 coup in Fiji. It has served Australia and the region well, providing a framework for collective action when political tensions and crises occur. However, in the face of rapid change, it looks narrow and dated.

Read the story from The Conversation by the Head of Department, Politics and Philosophy, at La Trobe University, Michael O’Keefe - “For Pacific Island nations, rising sea levels are a bigger security concern than rising Chinese influence.”

Nauru one of global capitalism's 'sacrifice sites'

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aomi Klein laments the fact that Nauru is one of global capitalism’s “sacrifice sites”.

The Canadian author and activist, discusses Nauru’s fate in her new book, “This Changes Everything: Capitalism Versus the Climate”

She writes: “Few places on earth embody the suicidal results of building our economics on polluting extraction mare graphically than Nauru. Thanks to mining of phosphate. Nauru he spent the last century disappearing from the inside out; now thanks to fossil fuels, it is disappearing from the inside in”.

And in the Melbourne Age tells more about Nauru’s troubles in its story – “UN's Nauru verdict: A poor, isolated island ravaged by phosphate mining.”