Newsletters
Fiji on Monday urged developed nations to back a just transition to renewable energy and to provide financing for the countries most vulnerable to climate change, as the United Nations "pre-COP" gathering opened in Nadi on Viti Levu, Fiji's main island.
This week's talks in Fiji and on Tuvalu, an atoll nation north of Fiji, aim to draw attention to life on the front line of climate change in the Pacific. They precede COP31, the larger U.N. climate summit, which takes place next month in Türkiye.
Fiji's Climate Minister Lynda Tabuya told a news conference that the countries suffering the most need support. "We rely on and we appeal to countries to commit to climate finance, to commit to projects to help us to have a just transition away from fossil fuels," she said.
A U.N. report released in August found that developing countries need between $310 billion and $365 billion to adapt, while only $26 billion in adaptation finance was available in 2023.
Australia, which heads this year's climate negotiations, is a major coal exporter and has faced accusations of hypocrisy, as its coal sales have risen on demand linked to the Middle East conflict.
Tabuya said she held a "frank discussion" on Monday with Australian counterpart Chris Bowen and Pacific officials. Asked whether she backed other Pacific leaders' calls for Australia to halt coal and gas expansions, she said certain countries had expressed such sentiments.
"But for the Pacific, it's important at this pre-COP that we find common ground. There will be things that we disagree on, but we can agree to disagree," she said.
Pacific leaders are also pushing the world to keep to a target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and to give more attention to the effects on oceans. "Keeping 1.5 alive means hope, hope for Tuvalu, hope for Kiribati, hope for small island atolls around the world," Bowen told journalists.
The August U.N. report said sea levels are rising at a record pace, driven by warming oceans and glacier melt. It said up to 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050, with Pacific island countries experiencing sea level rise at twice the global average.
Regional leaders pitched the pre-COP as a chance to bring the world to the Pacific, but the guest list is smaller than hoped. Nepal's Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal is among those attending, as his country recovers from August's Himalayan flood disaster that killed nearly 1,500 people and left 5,800 missing in Nepal and China.
Delegates will make a one-day trip to low-lying Tuvalu on Tuesday. The country is already planning to relocate its population if the ocean consumes it. Bowen confirmed on Monday that 14 leaders, most of them from the Pacific, will attend the visit.
"Sea-level rise is not a future threat, it is a present reality," Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the U.N. General Assembly ahead of the talks. The highest point in the capital Funafuti is two meters (6.6 feet) above sea level.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
5 min read
