Pacific step up or stuff-up? The complexities behind Scott Morrison's week in Tuvalu

When Scott Morrison walked down the steps of his RAAF jet and set foot on Funafuti, the tiny Pacific atoll which is 400 metres at its widest and just 18 kilometres long, he was greeted by the sight of several small children submerged in a wading pool.

"Save Tuvalu, save the world," the Prime Minister was told. It was a message that would be repeated for days to come.

The grouping of tiny islands in the Pacific was known to the rest of the world for much of the 19th and 20th centuries as a place of discovery and adventure. In the 1830s, Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle to the atoll and would later advance the theory that coral islands had been built on slowly-subsiding volcanic rocks. Robert Louis Stevenson, of Treasure Island fame, and his wife Fanny visited the capital Funafuti in 1890 on the trader steamer Janet Nichol.

But in the 21st century, Tuvalu is the international poster child for climate change. And for his part Morrison, a seasoned political pragmatist, had never sounded more committed to the cause.

"The impacts of changing climate cannot be more apparent for countries like Tuvalu," Morrison told journalists.

But like every Australian leader in the past decade he would find himself between a rock and a hard place on climate change. The mere acknowledgement that rising sea levels posed a serious risk wasn't going to be enough. Words, Pacific leaders continued to stress, would no longer do it.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Alex Hawke.Credit: AAP

Morrison is the most engaged Australian leader in the Pacific since Bob Hawke and had flown into the Pacific Islands Forum promising 17 other nations he would "step up". He had hoped for a warm and fuzzy family reunion and hadn't expected angry cousins to badmouth him on the way out.

"Yesterday was probably one of the most frustrating days I have ever had," Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama would tell The Guardian following a marathon 12-hour leader retreat.

The meeting had almost broken down twice over Australia's red-line demands on the climate crisis.

Smaller nations had wanted to make a strong statement on global action on climate change, including a quicker transition to renewable energy and a pledge to call for a ban on new coal-fired power stations and coal mines at a United Nations summit in New York next month.

But Australia wanted much of the language toned down. Morrison, conscious of his constituency back home, wasn't going to sign up to anything seen as a threat to the economy.

Tuvalu is a tiny nation vulnerable to rising sea levels. Credit: Alamy

Bainimarama, who was previously excluded from the forum for nearly a decade for refusing to hold elections, said Morrison's demands were "very insulting and condescending".

"I thought Morrison was a good friend of mine; apparently not," he said.

"The Prime Minister at one stage, because he was apparently [backed] into a corner by the leaders, came up with how much money Australia have been giving to the Pacific. He said, 'I want that stated. I want that on the record'. Very insulting."

Bainimarama's comments were delivered at a time where his nation and Australia have never enjoyed better diplomatic ties. He will make his first official visit to Australia next month but the past week's events threaten to sour a relationship which both sides admit had been blossoming.

While the Fijian strongman was the most critical publicly, behind the scenes Pacific nation diplomats and bureaucrats murmured their frustrations about Australia's delegation in hushed gatherings.

Australia is regarded by the leaders as the major player in the region; a provider of $1.4 billion in aid and support every year to many nations which are relying increasingly on the help of foreign neighbours to survive. Morrison came pledging another $500 million for projects to help them adapt to a rapidly-changing climate.

"They slap us around publicly on this stuff because they know we will never pull our [aid] funding," one Australian official said. "But this time the angst seems to be at a whole new level."

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, educated in Britain, is the second sibling in his family to hold the nation's highest office.

He has taken the climate fight to the world stage on behalf of his 11,000 people. Facing an election within weeks, he balanced diplomacy with some strong signals to his voters.

"I have to be frank, we had very, very open discussion with the Prime Minister of Australia," he told reporters.

"I said to him, 'you are concerned about saving your economy in Australia. I'm concerned about saving my people in Tuvalu and likewise the leaders of other smaller countries'.

"Prime Minister Morrison of course stated his position and I stated my position, and other leaders, [that] we need to save these people."

But like Morrison, who promised he would be at the table for "the good conversations" and the "hard conversations", Sopoaga admits when families come together they argue.

"There are differences of course," he said. "But it's no use to start a blame game. We can move together rather than standing by accusing and pointing fingers at each other."

Australia's re-engagement with the Pacific comes at a time where traditional Western allies such as the United States, Britain and France are increasingly anxious about China's own growing interests in the region.

Beijing's own appearance at the forum was a direct pitch to smaller island nations that it cares about climate change in the same way they do. The brazen move deeply angered the Australians and the Americans.

Pacific leaders pose for the traditional group shot. Credit: AAP

Morrison won't mention China directly but he made it clear Australia would continue supporting the region no matter what.

"We want a viable, sustainable, successful, sovereign, independent set of Pacific Island states. And for them to maintain and realise their way of life," he said.

"It's not just about preserving your environment or just protecting your economy, it's actually preserving a way of life here in the Pacific. And this is the connection that we make with Pacific peoples all around the region."

But Bainimarama worries Morrison's 'step up' might now be a stuff-up.

"China never insults the Pacific. You say it as if there's a competition between Australia and China. There's no competition, except to say the Chinese don't insult us."