Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and 13 other heads of state and government flew into Funafuti on Tuesday for the leaders' event of the Pre-COP climate meeting, which Australia is co-hosting with Tuvalu and Fiji. The ministerial talks continue in Nadi until Thursday, a month before COP31 opens in Antalya, Türkiye.
The leaders are due to tour the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project. Tuvalu has about 10,600 people, and Funafuti's highest point is two metres above sea level, AFP reported. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told reporters in Nadi on Monday that the sea had "already risen 15 centimetres there, with the capital under real threat in this decade."
Australia is hosting because of a trade made at COP30. Its joint bid with the Pacific to host COP31 lost out to Türkiye, and in exchange Australia took the role of President of Negotiations and the right to stage a Pre-COP in the region. Bowen said 14 heads of state or government were making the trip to Tuvalu, most of them from the Pacific. The only non-Pacific leaders named were the prime minister of Mauritius and the president of Timor-Leste.
Tuvalu's climate minister, Maina Vakafua Talia, put the stakes plainly. "The decisions we make at Pre-COP and COP31 will be felt by our communities first," she said.
Australia's offer so far is modest next to that. Bowen announced a $7.29 million Pacific energy security package and a memorandum of understanding with Vanuatu, both under the existing $50 million Australia-Pacific Partnership for Energy Transition. He said some Pacific countries spend 25 per cent of their GDP on diesel. Bowen said reports that hosting would cost about $20 million were "in the ballpark", and the money comes from a $147 million budget allocation for Pacific climate engagement.
The questions in Nadi kept returning to Australia's exports. Reporters pressed Bowen and Fiji's climate minister, Lynda Tabuya, on Australian coal and gas expansion. Tabuya acknowledged that "certain countries" had raised it and said "we can agree to disagree." Bowen said Australia, "as a fossil fuel exporting nation", could argue for a transition that dealt with "supply" as well as demand.
Fiji has set four demands it calls non-negotiable: keeping warming to 1.5 degrees within reach, faster and fairer climate finance including the Pacific Resilience Facility, putting the ocean at the centre of climate action, and amplifying Pacific leadership. Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said on Sunday that finance must arrive "not someday, but now, and as an act of justice, not charity."
COP31 President Murat Kurum, Türkiye's environment minister, made a similar point. "Promises do not hold back the sea or shield homes from the fire. Only delivery can save us," he said.
At home, opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan called the meeting a "vanity project" and said Australians did not need "a $150 million overseas talkfest." Bowen said that "diplomacy does come at a cost" and that the engagement improved Australia's standing in the region. In Nadi, Albanese pointed to Australia and Fiji entering "a new alliance, only our fourth alliance in Australia's history."
The leaders' event ends in Funafuti on Tuesday. Ministers return to Nadi for the final days of the Pre-COP, and COP31 opens in Antalya on 9 November.
