Australia is bracing for floods, cyclones and extreme heat this summer, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned at a climate summit in Fiji. At the same time, a state regulator approved a major coalmine development that could become the largest in New South Wales' history if it gets federal approval.
Albanese tied the forecast to climate change and a rising “super El Niño.” At the talks, Australia faced criticism for calling for stronger climate action while continuing new expanded coal and gas developments. The contrast is now concrete: a state regulator approved the coalmine, but federal approval remains pending.
The people facing the cost
Tuvalu's prime minister, Feleti Teo, said island states need faster access to global climate finance as extreme events worsen. “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.
About 10,000 people live in Tuvalu, spread across three reef islands and six atolls. Most of the country lies less than 2 metres above sea level. National and global agency leaders visited to see the effects of the climate crisis, and listened to Melelusi Sokotia, a 13-year-old local student.
Sokotia said her friends dream of “becoming teachers, doctors, builders.” Yet they 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.”
Tuvalu's director of climate change, Jamie Ovia, said flooding and storm surges could cause US$34m in annual damage by 2050 and $63m by 2100, more than Tuvalu's GDP. Coastal fishing catches could drop 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?”
Promises and fossil fuel development
Albanese said the visit showed 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. He spoke after leaders at a “sautalaga,” an exchange of views, voiced support for Tuvalu and called for quicker emissions cuts and funding to help island states adapt.
Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the world stood on the brink of overshooting the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C, agreed in the 2015 Paris agreement. He urged countries to bring forward their 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.
Officials showed the delegation a land reclamation project designed to extend Tuvalu's atoll by about 20 hectares with sand and gravel dredged from its lagoon. The Albanese government promised the visit last year as part of a compromise deal after Australia missed out on hosting the Cop31 climate conference. Turkey will host Cop31 next month, while Fiji and Tuvalu host a preparatory meeting.
The forecast offered a stark warning. Albanese said the world couldn't afford to let the 1.5C goal “just slip from our grasp.” “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,” he said. Calls at the summit for faster cuts and finance came as Australia continues coal and gas developments.