Mixed start for pre-Cop as just two non-Pacific leaders accept Australian invitation to climate summit — SkimNews
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- Anthony Albanese arrived in Fiji on Monday for the pre-Cop preparatory meeting attended by roughly 4,000 people in Nadi, ahead of the year-ending Cop31 UN climate summit in Turkey.
- The Australian government confirmed only 14 national leaders will visit Tuvalu on Tuesday, and just two — Timor-Leste's José Ramos-Horta and Mauritius' Navin Ramgoolam — traveled from beyond the Pacific, with the rest coming from the region itself.
- Dan Tehan, Australian opposition energy and emissions reduction spokesperson, called the Fiji conference a 'farce' and a waste of taxpayers' money, branding it climate change minister Chris Bowen's 'vanity project'.
- Other confirmed attendees include EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, UN climate chief Simon Stiell, incoming Cop president and Turkey's Murat Kurum, and the heads of the Asian Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund.
- Fiji's prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka reframed the stakes, telling delegates: 'I'm not asking you to look at the Pacific with your sympathy... I'm asking you to look at us as a bellwether, indicating the scale of the challenges that will come.'
- The Australian government faced separate criticism for approving large new coal and gas developments, including what the source describes as the largest coalmine in New South Wales history, which received state approval last week.
- Fiji's environment minister Lynda Tabuya said the country's aims this week and at Cop31 are keeping the 1.5C global heating limit within reach, unlocking 'faster, fairer' climate finance for developing countries, and making ocean health a focus of climate action.
- The UN Environment Programme warned last month the world will overshoot the 1.5C Paris agreement goal, with every fraction of a degree intensifying extreme weather, glacier melt, ecosystem loss and coastal submersion.
Why it matters: Australia's pre-Cop was designed to amplify Pacific voices on the global stage, but only two non-Pacific leaders made the trip, and the host government was simultaneously approving what the source calls the largest coalmine in NSW history — a contradiction that weakens its moral authority heading into the Cop31 talks in Turkey.
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