Pacific islands will survive climate crisis because they 'pick our fruit', Australia's deputy PM says

Pacific island nations affected by the climate crisis will continue to survive “because many of their workers come here to pick our fruit”, Australia’s deputy prime minister has said.

Michael McCormack 'annoyed' at calls to end
coal so Pacific islands 'can survive'.

Michael McCormack’s comments were made after critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum that almost collapsed over Australia’s positions on coal and climate change.

Fears are growing the situation might come at a diplomatic cost for Australia in a region where China has become increasingly influential.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Smee - “Pacific islands will survive climate crisis because they 'pick our fruit', Australia's deputy PM says.”

Robyn Eckersley questions Australia's climate diplomacy

Robyn Eckersley - from the University of
Melbourne, who is presently in Paris.

The diplomacy could be cast in positive terms, on the surface at least.

During the first week of the climate negotiations in Paris, Australia displayed a preparedness to be flexible and serve as a broker of compromises in the negotiations over the draft Paris Agreement.

Australia has also declared its support for the inclusion of a temperature goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is a matter very dear to the hearts of Pacific Island nations for whom climate change is a fundamental existential threat.

Australia will serve as Co-chair (with South Africa) of the Green Climate Fund in 2016, which will be channelling money to the most vulnerable countries in the Pacific and elsewhere to enhance their preparedness for the harmful impacts arising from a much warmer world.

Read the report by the Professor and Chair of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Robyn Eckersley, who is in Paris - “Australia’s climate diplomacy like a doughnut: empty in the middle.”

Greens back call by Pacific Island Nations for 1.5 degree limit

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he Australian Greens have endorsed calls by Pacific Island nations for a climate treaty limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, putting further distance between its policies and those of the Turnbull government and the Labor Opposition.

The move comes as the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) revealed carbon-dioxide levels reached another annual record in 2014, continuing a "relentless rise", according to its chief Michel Jarraud.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Greens back 1.5-degree warming limit, turning up heat on Labor, Coalition,”

Prominent Australians call for ban on new coalmines and mine expansions

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ixty-one prominent Australians, from Wallaby David Pocock to the Anglican bishop of Canberra George Browning, have signed an open letter calling on world leaders to discuss a ban on new coalmines and coalmine expansions at the United Nations climate change meeting in Paris in December.

The signatories are backing a call by the president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, and other leaders of Pacific Island nations in the recent Suva Declaration on climate change from the Pacific Island Development Forum.

Read The Guardian story - “Prominent Australians ask world leaders to consider ban on new coalmines”.