An Australian state regulator approved a major coalmine development last week, even as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned that Australia faces a summer of floods, cyclones, extreme heat and “extreme behaviour.” If it receives federal approval, the mine would be the largest in New South Wales' history. The warning came at a climate summit in Fiji, where leaders called for faster emissions cuts and funding for island states.
Tuvalu's 13-year-old student Melelusi Sokotia told the visiting delegation that her friends dream of “becoming teachers, doctors, builders” but spend their lives wondering whether their island will survive into their adult lives. “We all have one single dream: to grow safely here in Tuvalu,” she said. “We are not asking for peace. We are asking for help and partnership. Please work together to protect small islands like ours.”
The cost arrives on the islands
Tuvalu consists of three reef islands and six atolls, and is home to about 10,000 people. Most of the country sits less than 2 metres above sea level. During the delegation's visit, heavy rain clouds obscured much of Funafuti, the capital, which appeared only in strips during the descent.
Tuvalu's director of climate change, Jamie Ovia, said sea-level rise is projected to push the annual cost of damage from flooding and storm surges to US$34m by 2050 and $63m by 2100—more than Tuvalu's GDP. Coastal fishing catches could fall by 16%, he said, while warming seas could cost the country tuna stocks worth $4m a year. “We need time to adapt,” Ovia said. “Tuvalu is doing our part. Will you act with Tuvalu and will you act in time?”
Tuvalu's prime minister, Feleti Teo, said island states need faster access to global climate finance to respond to worsening extreme events. “Why should countries like Tuvalu take on more debt to protect ourselves from a climate crisis we did so little to cause? We should not have to borrow our way out of a crisis,” he said. Those facing the damage must also shoulder debt to pay for protection.
Promises meet the coal machine
Albanese said the forecast and the impacts on Pacific island countries, including low-lying Tuvalu, showed the world couldn't let the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C “just slip from our grasp.” Sea levels in the western Pacific are rising at more than twice the global average, he said, and a forecast “super El Niño may test us all.”
“The science told us that if we didn't act to address global emissions this is precisely what would occur, and tragically that is playing out,” Albanese said. Yet Australia faced criticism at the talks for advocating greater climate action while continuing new expanded coal and gas developments. The state regulator's approval of the major coalmine now sits beside those calls; federal approval is still required.
Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the world was on the brink of overshooting the 1.5C goal agreed in the 2015 Paris agreement and must bring forward plans to cut emissions. “The transition away from fossil fuels was agreed to by all of us in Dubai [at the Cop28 summit in 2023]. It is not a new ask, and it is not open for renegotiation,” he said. The agreement stands on record. Coal and gas expansion continues.
A visit, a project, and the people waiting
The delegation of national and global agency leaders visited Tuvalu after Australia promised the trip last year as part of a compromise deal after missing out on hosting the Cop31 climate conference. Cop31 will be held in Turkey next month, while Fiji and Tuvalu are hosting a preparatory meeting. At the visit, leaders took part in a cultural welcome, toured a climate resilience project and held a “sautalaga,” an exchange of views. They voiced support for Tuvalu and called for faster emissions cuts and funding to help island states adapt.
The leaders saw a land reclamation project that would extend the atoll by about 20 hectares using sand and gravel dredged from its lagoon. The delegation included former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, now the chair of health charity Wellcome. Albanese, attending his first UN climate conference as prime minister since his election in 2022, said climate change “must be understood as being something more than about science or targets.” “It must be understood that effectively it's about people,” he said. Tuvalu's young people have already made that point plainly: they want to grow safely at home.