Canberra applies pressure for region to stay quiet on coal

Pacific Minister Alex Hawke says island nations must respect our economic reliance on coal.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Gary Ramage

Pacific Minister Alex Hawke says he does not want Scott Morrison’s talks this week with Pacific Island leaders to break down over Australia’s support for coal, but warns it is a “red line issue.”

The Prime Minister will fly into ­Tuvalu today for the Pacific Islands Forum under pressure from Pacific leaders over his government’s commitment to tackling climate change.

The Australian revealed earlier today that Mr Hawke has been working to tone down the language of the ­Funafuti ­Declaration behind the scenes.

With Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoanga pushing hard for Australia to do more on climate, Mr Hawke said today that Pacific Island nations would need to respect our nation’s economic reliance on coal.

“We wouldn’t want to see talks break down but every country has a position, every country has a thing we need to stick with. Australia has a position we have to stick with,” Mr Hawke told ABC radio.

“It (Australia’s support for coal) certainly is a red line issue. It certainly is a red line issue.

“There is a great deal of respect between leaders ... they also listen to us about the way our economy is structured.

“Australia has a red line position on coal.”

Mr Hawke said he understood the threat climate change poses to countries like Tuvalu and said Australia was committed to helping them in other ways.

Canberra applies pressure on Pcific Islands

The Morrison government is lobbying hard behind the scenes at the Pacific Islands Forum to keep a transition from coal-fired power out of the final communique to be signed by regional leaders, calling it a “red-line” issue for Australia.

Scott Morrison will fly into ­Tuvalu today under pressure from Pacific leaders over his government’s commitment to tackling climate change, with The Australian confirming the Minister for the Pacific, Alex Hawke, has been working to tone down the language of the ­Funafuti ­Declaration. The government has argued in preliminary meetings that any reference to coal in the final communique would be a step too far because it could place obligations on Australia to wind back the $26 billion thermal coal ­industry.

The Australian has learned Mr Hawke held discussions with several Pacific Island countries on Monday, presenting them with a table showing Australia had just 20 of the world’s 2459 operating coalmines, while 126 were in China and 33 in India. Of 359 coalmines in pre-construction, Australia had just two.

It is understood Australia’s negotiating team — led by Mr Hawke and the Head of the Office of the Pacific Ewen McDonald — are arguing Australia is the largest contributor to climate change funding in the region and its economic interests should not get in the way of Pacific relationships.

Pacific nations want to use the communique to call for a major top-up of the Green Climate Fund, which is almost expended after an initial $US10bn in international commitments.

Australia is arguing it cannot endorse the rejuvenation of the UN initiative, which Mr Morrison described yesterday as “some ­remote fund in Geneva”. Speaking in October last year, the Prime Minister said Australia was not going to “tip money into that big climate fund”.

Mr Morrison will today face pressure from small island states after they declared his commitment to spend more on sea walls and disaster relief didn’t excuse Australia from doing the “right thing” on emissions.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoanga delivered the stark message after a meeting of the forum’s eight smallest members called for an immediate ban on the construction of new coal plants and the opening of new coalmines, as well as an urgent boost to global efforts to fight climate change.

Mr Morrison, who has prioritised his Pacific diplomatic push amid rising strategic competition with China, said Australia would deliver on its 2030 Paris emissions cuts and “smash” its 2020 Kyoto commitments.

“Australia is doing its bit and it’s doing it, I think, in a very effective way. And that is a point I’ll be making again when I meet with Pacific leaders,” the Prime Minister said in Sydney.

Mr Morrison has announced reprioritisation of $500 million from the aid program to protect regional neighbours from rising seas and worsening storms rather that routing the money through the Green Climate Fund.

“This isn’t cheques that we’re sending off to some remote fund in Geneva to spend who knows where. We stopped that practice. What we do now … is to help them with the mitigation and resilience works which are needed in these islands — and those needs are very real,” he said.

Mr Morrison will today seek to shift discussion at the forum to economic issues, launching a new skills portal to help Pacific workers tap into opportunities across the region, including in Australia and New Zealand.

He will also announce a $1.5m commitment to deliver an extra 150 technical and vocational scholarships in 2019-20 through the Australia Pacific Training ­Coalition. The scholarships will provide graduates with Australian qualifications so they can take ­advantage of Australian labour mobility programs.

But Mr Sopoaga — whose ­island is facing worsening storm surges as temperatures rise — said island nations wanted to see a deeper commitment from Australia on climate change.

“No matter how much money you put on the table it doesn’t give you the excuse not to do the right thing, which is cutting down your emissions, including not opening your coalmines,” he said.

PIF’s Small Island States grouping issued a statement yesterday expressing “deep concern” at the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that a 1.5C temperature rise would threaten the survival of small ­island communities.

The SIS group includes Tuvalu, Nauru, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, and Federated States of Micronesia.

The declaration followed a plea by Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama for Mr Morrison “to fully appreciate” the threat posed to Pacific nations and “achieve rapid transition from coal”.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also ramped up the pressure on Mr Morrison yesterday, inviting the Prime Minister to visit the Torres Strait to see the ­impact of rising sea levels “much closer to home”.

Ms Palaszczuk and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan used Friday’s Council of Australian Governments meeting to push for commonwealth support to combat rising seas and hit out at the lack of action at a federal level.

“The same water that’s lapping at the Pacific Islands is lapping at ours. And yet when I raised the issue of rising sea levels with the Prime Minister at COAG he said it was a state issue,” Ms Palaszczuk told The Australian.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: ROSIE LEWIS