Page 25 - Islands Business June 2023

Climate Change Climate Change

• Tuvalu and Vanuatu are both members of the Beyond Oil Action from Australia
and Gas Alliance (BOGA), which is spearheaded by Den- Despite significant advances in climate policy since the
mark and Costa Rica. BOGA is an international alliance of election of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) government in
governments working to facilitate the managed phase-out May 2022, many island leaders want more ambitious commit-
of oil and gas production, and other Pacific Island coun- ments from the largest Forum member.
tries have expressed interest in the process. The Albanese government has created a new safeguards
mechanism that will allow corporations to offset their emis-
The time for rhetoric has passed sions through projects in Australia and developing countries
At home, Pacific governments are under increasing pressure (including carbon offset initiatives in Papua New Guinea and
from church, environmental and community networks, such as Fiji). At the same time, there are more than 100 coal and gas
the Pacific Climate Warriors, Pacific Islands Students Fight- projects in development across Australia, with 28 fossil fuel
ing Climate Change, and the Pacific Islands Climate Action projects formally awaiting approval by Environment Minister
Network (PICAN). Tanya Plibersek.
Speaking to a webinar hosted by the Australia Institute, Vanuatu’s Climate Minister Regenvanu has noted that
Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change, Ralph Regenvanu, has Australia is a signatory to the 2018 Boe Declaration – which
highlighted the failure of OECD countries to meet their emis- identifies climate change as the greatest single threat to the
sions targets and commit the promised US$100 billion of pub- livelihoods, well-being and security of Pacific peoples – and
lic and private climate funding towards developing countries should allocate human and financial resources accordingly.
each year. Industrialised countries missed their 2020 target, “Australia is our first partner of choice and has been for a
even as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change requires a long time,” Regenvanu said. “But there are tensions in our
new, upgraded target after 2025. relationship, definitely, and the biggest tension is climate
“The two targets that the whole world agreed to in Paris change. It is the glaring thing that is not exactly right with
had not been met,” Regenvanu said. “We’re not seeing the our partner of choice. To make that relationship the best that
emissions reductions that we need to see happen. We’re not it can be, climate policy is something that Australia needs to
seeing the financial commitment from the developed coun- deal with. It continues down the road subsidising fossil fuels,
tries to the developing countries to build their resilience and not supporting the Pacific in its climate ambitions, not recog-
adapt and mitigate and deal with loss and damage. That was nising the main security threat to the Pacific – that’s a clear
the context in which Vanuatu pushed for the International point where we diverge from Australia, in what we think of as
Court of Justice advisory opinion on the impacts of climate security.”
change on the environment, on states, on people and on hu- The ALP government has continued fossil fuel subsidies
man rights.” worth an estimated A$11 billion a year, a sum that far
Seve Paeniu is Tuvalu’s Minister for Finance and the Pacific outweighs the A$700 million in climate finance pledged to
Islands Forum climate champion on Loss and Damage during the Pacific over the next four years, and new initiatives on
UNFCCC negotiations. He is a vocal advocate for more urgent humanitarian relief and disaster preparedness in the latest
action on emissions, stressing that “we all know that the Federal budget.
climate crisis and the climate emergency is caused by fossil “The science is very clear – we need to stop taking fossil
fuels.” fuels out of the ground,” Regenvanu said. “Sure, there’s got
In line with the Port Vila Declaration, Paeniu is now calling to be a transition, but the first step of the transition is to stop
for other Pacific countries to establish a “non-proliferation putting money into an industry that you know is destroying
treaty” on fossil fuel production. the world. You’ve got to make that change in your action,
“The idea is to stop any further expansion of fossil fuels, your investment and your budgeting. We are very happy to
and in the longer term to eliminate any use of fossil fuels con- see the Albanese government passing this latest climate legis-
sumption,” he said. “It is an ambitious initiative and target, lation, which is a very big step forward from Australia in terms
but for us – the Small Island Developing States who contribute of climate policy. However, we are very disappointed to see
less than 0.03% of total emissions – we face the brunt of cli- that Australia continues to subsidise fossil fuel projects.”
mate change and sea-level rise. It is a matter of our security Beyond this, Vanuatu’s Climate Minister is increasingly
and our survival and that’s why we are eager to address the frustrated by the failure of OECD countries to set common
causes of climate change, which we know very well is caused standards for monitoring global climate finance: “We’ve seen
by fossil fuel production and consumption.” attempts to track climate finance coming into the Pacific, but
This month, Fiji joined Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Tonga to it’s made very difficult by the need to clarify ‘what is climate
formally adopt the call for development of a Fossil Fuel Non- finance?’. This lack of credibility is a clear factor that has
Proliferation Treaty. Genevieve Jika, the Fiji Government’s eroded our trust in the international climate negotiations, and
Principal International Relations Officer said: “The time for why we pushed so hard for a Loss and Damage Fund.”
bold, ambitious and transformative measures is now.” As Tuvalu’s Minister for Finance, Seve Paeniu sits on the

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