Pacific leaders voice frustration over Australia's position on climate change

Tony Abbott is set to receive a frosty reception from some Pacific island leaders in Papua New Guinea amid frustration at Australia’s perceived failure to properly address climate change.

The president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, said that Australia may be asked to leave the Pacific Islands Forum, or face a walkout by small island states, if it attempted to water down a commitment to curb global warming.

Pacific nations have called for global warming to be limited to 1.5C above a pre-industrial baseline, claiming that the internationally-agreed limit of 2C would devastate their low-lying islands through sea-level rises and extreme weather.

Tong said that it would be a “betrayal” if Australia forced any compromise on the 1.5C target at the forum, which is being held in Port Moresby this week.

“We expect them as our big brothers, not bad brothers, our big brothers to support us on this one,” he said.

“We cannot negotiate this, no matter how much aid. We cannot be bought on this one because it’s about the future.

“If Tony Abbott was here, facing the situation we are facing now, what kind of an answer would he expect from me as prime minister of Australia?”

Tong said that Abbott should visit Kiribati, a nation of 102,000 people living on 33 mostly pancake-flat coral atolls, to witness the potential damage that climate change will cause. He added that climate change will create a wave of refugees comparable to the number of people currently fleeing Syria for Europe.

Tong recently said Australia was “selfish” for continuing to embrace coal-fired energy instead of renewable alternatives. The prime minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, said that Tong’s views are “strongly shared by leaders of smaller island states.”

The 1.5C commitment already appears to be in trouble, however, with New Zealand indicating its opposition to the pledge. Australia and New Zealand are the economic powerhouses among the 16 nations making up the Pacific Islands Forum.

New Zealand’s prime minister, John Key, said he understood the views of Pacific islanders but that he expected the forum to reach a consensus position, indicating the 1.5C goal will not be agreed to.

Abbott is set to arrive in Port Moresby on Wednesday night. Parliamentary secretary to the PM, Christian Porter, has represented Australia in Abbott’s place until now.

Australia has support among some members of the forum, however, including Peter O’Neill, prime minister of host nation Papua New Guinea.

“We have to respect all leaders’ views, that’s one view,” O’Neill said.

“I think [Australia] is a very strong member of the Pacific forum and we look forward to their continued participation over many, many years.”

Tanya Plibersek, Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, said Abbott needed to listen to the Pacific islands that are on the “front line” of climate change.

“They’re saying that our targets are not ambitious enough,” she said.

“It’s incredible really that an organisation that has stuck together through so much, since about the beginning of the 1970s, is now considering splitting because Australia is so intransigent on climate change.”