Morrison’s ‘arrogance’ on climate blasted as Australia accused of ‘trying to destroy’ Pacific islands

Labor has accused Scott Morrison of trashing Australia’s standing in the Pacific and alienating its friends at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, while a former president of Kiribati has urged Australia’s membership to be reviewed.

Labor’s shadow foreign affairs
 minister, Penny Wong, says
Scott Morrison has ‘undermined the
Pacific step-up’ with his behaviour
 at the Pacific Islands Forum.

Anote Tong said the forum should consider possible sanctions or suspension of Australia for its continued “protestations” on coal and climate.

“What is the relevance of Australia’s ongoing protestations in the forum?,” he said. “If it’s going to continue with that line, it poses a danger to the other countries in that forum.

“How can you justify being part of a family and part of a group which you’re trying to destroy?”

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox and AAP - “Morrison’s ‘arrogance’ on climate blasted as Australia accused of ‘trying to destroy’ Pacific islands.”

Call for Australia's Pacific membership to be suspended over coal

Welcome mat to go?: Australia's Prime
 Minister Scott Morrison arrives at the
Leaders Retreat during the Pacific Islands
Forum last week in Funafuti, Tuvalu.

Australia's membership of the Pacific Islands Forum should be "urgently reviewed" for possible sanctions or suspension over the Morrison government's pro-coal stance, says Anote Tong, a former president of Kiribati.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's resistance to demands by forum leaders at last week's gathering in Tuvalu for a global ban on new coal-fired power plants and coal mines has also drawn criticism from Rachel Kyte, a special United Nations representative, who described support for the fossil fuel as "reckless and cruel”.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hannam - “Call for Australia's Pacific membership to be suspended over coal.”

Pacific Island nations will no longer stand for Australia’s inaction on climate change

The inability to meet Pacific Island
expectations on climate change
 will erode Australia’s leadership
credentials and influence in the
region.

The Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Tuvalu this week has ended in open division over climate change. 

Australia ensured its official communique watered down commitments to respond to climate change, gaining a hollow victory. 

Traditionally, communiques capture the consensus reached at the meeting. In this case, the division on display between Australia and the Pacific meant the only commitment is to commission yet another report into what action needs to be taken.

The cost of Australia’s victory is likely to be great, as it questions the sincerity of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s commitment to “step up” engagement in the Pacific.

Read the story from The Conversation by the Head of Department of Politics and Philosophy from La Trobe University, Michael O’Keefe - “Pacific Island nations will no longer stand for Australia’s inaction on climate change.”

Revealed: 'fierce' Pacific forum meeting almost collapsed over climate crisis

Critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum almost collapsed twice amid “fierce” clashes between the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Tuvalu’s prime minister, Enele Sopoaga, over Australia’s “red lines” on climate change.

The leaders of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu,
 New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa talk before
the group photo at the Pacific Island Forum.

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s foreign minister, who was part of the drafting committee of the forum communique and observed the leaders’ retreat, said there was heated discussion over the Australian delegation’s insistence on the removal of references to coal, setting a target of limiting global warming to below 1.5C and announcing a strategy for zero emissions by 2050.

He described the discussions as “frank, fierce at times, [with] very strong positions being held”.

“Negotiations almost broke down twice, [with leaders] saying ‘this is not going to happen, we’re not going to have a collective decision’,” he said. Leaders had to take a break from proceedings, which started about 9.30am local time and lasted for almost 12 hours.

Read the story from The Guardian by Kate Lyons - “Revealed: 'fierce' Pacific forum meeting almost collapsed over climate crisis.”

Australia removes climate 'crisis' from Pacific islands draft declaration

Scott Morrison at the Pacific Islands
Forum in Funafuti, Tuvalu. Australia
 has been working to soften language
 on coal and the climate emergency
in its draft declaration.

Australia has succeeded in removing all but one reference to coal on the draft communique of the Pacific Islands Forum, and is expected to be able to get that removed on Thursday as Pacific leaders including Scott Morrison meet to debate the text.

Sources familiar with the negotiations on the communique, which is used for regional policy making, told Guardian Australia that Australia has been working hard during negotiations to soften the language on climate change and has succeeded in many mentions.

Read the story from The Guardian by Kate Lyons - “Australia removes climate 'crisis' from Pacific islands draft declaration.”

Can Scott Morrison deliver on climate change in Tuvalu – or is his Pacific ‘step up’ doomed?

This week’s Pacific Islands Forum comes at an important time in the overall trajectory of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s very personal commitment to an Australian “stepping up” in the Pacific. 

Pacific leaders don’t want to talk
about China’s rising influence – they
want Scott Morrison to make a firm
 commitment to cut Australia’s
greenhouse gas emissions.

To paraphrase the PM, you have to show up to step up. And after skipping last year’s Pacific Islands Forum, Morrison has certainly been doing a fair amount of showing up around the region, with visits to Vanuatu and Fiji at the beginning of the year and the Solomon Islands immediately after his election victory.

Add to this his recent hosting of the new PNG prime minister, James Marape, and it is clear there has been significant energy devoted to establishing personal relationships with some of the leaders he will sit down with this week.

Read the story from The Conversation by the Adjunct Associate Professor from the School of Political Science and International Studies at The University of Queensland, Tess Newton Cain - “Can Scott Morrison deliver on climate change in Tuvalu – or is his Pacific ‘step up’ doomed?”

Australia will fund a $500m climate change package for the Pacific, PM to announce

Scott Morrison will unveil a $500m climate change and oceans funding package for the Pacific region when he attends the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Tuvalu this week.

Claire Anterea, co-founder of the Kiribati
Climate Action Network, says the situation
in the Pacific is ‘not about cash’.

The funding package, which will use existing aid funds to help Pacific nations invest in renewable energy and climate and disaster resilience, will build on the $300m given by the government for that purpose in 2016-2020.

“The Pacific is our home, which we share as a family of nations. We’re here to work with our Pacific partners to confront the potential challenges they face in the years ahead,” said the prime minister.

Read the story from The Guardian by Kate Lyons - “Australia will fund a $500m climate change package for the Pacific, PM to announce.”

(Rather than handing such a massive amount of money to the Pacific island nations, Scott Morrison should be attending to what is actually happening in Australia and help his fellows change their behaviours; behaviours that puts them among the worst offenders in the world with regard per capita carbon dioxide emissions. Also, we should be spending richly to enable Australia to break the vice-like grip in which it is held by the fossil fuel industry - Robert McLean)

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.”

Failure to act on climate will cost trillions, trash global economies

As Australia plays nice at the Pacific Islands Forum – the scene of would-be prime minister Peter Dutton’s 2015 accidentally overheard sea-level rise joke – no fewer than three new reports have this week warned of the massive economic cost of failing to act on climate change.

The first, from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, puts forward a “conservative estimate” that bold action to avoid the high risks of a changing climate could deliver $US26 trillion in global economic benefits through to 2030, compared with business-as-usual.

Meanwhile, the economic costs of inaction – to say nothing of the environmental costs – were mounting faster, and were greater than previously recognised.

Read the story from RenewEconomy by Sophie Vorrath - “Failure to act on climate will cost trillions, trash global economies.”

Australia tried to water down climate change resolution at Pacific Islands Forum: leader

Australia attempted to water down a resolution on climate change agreed by country representatives at the Pacific Islands Forum, a leader attending the event has claimed.

Flags fly on Nauru for the Pacific Islands Forum. Australia
attempted to resist the strong language in the Boe declaration
 which says climate change is the ‘single greatest threat’ to the Pacific. 

Pacific leaders issued the Boe declaration on Wednesday night, calling climate change “the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific” at the conclusion of the Pacific Islands Forum, which has been held in Nauru this week.

However the forum communique – which focused heavily on climate change and the need for emissions reductions – was endorsed by leaders “with qualification”.

Read the story by Kate Lyons and Ben Doherty from The Guardian - “Australia tried to water down climate change resolution at Pacific Islands Forum: leader.”

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.”

Pacific Islands Forum: Climate change and illegal fishing on agenda for Samoa meeting

Leaders from around the region will attempt to form a collective voice on such varied topics as climate change, illegal fishing and labour mobility as they gather in Samoa's capital Apia for the annual Pacific Islands Forum.

This year's gathering of Pacific leaders comes
 as the Australian Government pledges to
renew its engagement with the region.

The official theme of this year's forum is The Blue Pacific: Our Sea of Islands, Our Security through Sustainable Development, Management and Conservation.

In an address to journalists ahead of the forum, Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said the theme provided a new narrative for how the forum engaged with the world with a unified voice.

"By the sheer fact of our geography, such as trends associated with shifts in the centres of global power, this places the Pacific at the centre of contemporary global geopolitics," he said.

Read the ABC News story - “Pacific Islands Forum: Climate change and illegal fishing on agenda for Samoa meeting.”