COP26: Cash splash to pull islands out of China’s grip

Scott Morrison will pump $2bn of climate investment into the Indo-Pacific to counter Xi Jinping’s climate diplomacy push.

Scott Morrison arrives for the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow. Picture: AFP

Scott Morrison will pump $2bn into the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s climate diplomacy but faces calls from Pacific Island ­nations, led by Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, for Australia to halve its emissions by 2030.

Speaking in Glasgow, Mr Morrison said Australia would help countries in its own “backyard” drive down emissions. The Prime Minister also said Australia would double its five-year pledge – in line with commitments made by Britain, the US and Canada – to help fund climate “mitigation and ­adaptation” across the region. This includes $700m for South Pacific nations being aggressively wooed by Beijing.

After meeting in Glasgow with Mr Bainimarama, Tuvalu Prime Minister Kausea Natano and Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr, Mr Morrison said there was “no greater threat to our Pacific family, to the blue economy, than climate change”.

“We’re not putting this (climate finance) through other worldwide institutions or other groups like this, we are doing this direct ­because we want to make sure that the climate finance investments that Australians are making are being invested in our backyard among our Pacific Islands family and among our Southeast Asian partners and friends,” he said.

“We want to cut out all of the red tape and get rid of all of the ­bureaucracy and make sure that this funding is going to work ­directly within our region, making a big difference for their resilience and their mitigation to make sure they can deal not just with trying to reduce their emissions, but more significantly being able to deal with the consequences of ­climate change which they’re ­already experiencing.”

Mr Morrison said climate ­finance allocated for South Pacific nations would be provided through “direct grants that make real projects a reality”.

China has recently ramped-up its funding pledges for the South Pacific, increasing investment in climate-resilient projects.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said Australia’s focus must be on “practical solutions” and low-emissions technologies that “bring down the cost of electricity and ­energy and support competitive industries” for all countries.

The commitment comes as ­developing nations used the G20 summit to demand advanced economies fulfil their com­mitment to provide $US100bn a year to help their transition to net zero.

Mr Morrison said the “fundamental point is that if we want the whole of the world’s emissions to go down”, the costs of new technologies must come down.

“We can’t control the costs of carbon-based fuels in China or in India or in Indonesia. But what we can do is work with those countries to ensure the technologies that they’re adopting for their ­industrial growth and their strength and their jobs is low emissions and low costs.”

Fiji became the first country to join the government’s Indo-­Pacific carbon offsets scheme, ­announced last month under the government’s net zero by 2050 plan. Mr Bainimarama – the ­Pacific Islands Forum chair – signed an agreement with Mr Morrison on the sidelines of the COP26 summit, laying the foundations for a “high integrity and accessible carbon market for Fiji”.

Mr Morrison said South Pacific leaders, who are pushing for ­Australia to adopt a more ambitious 2030 emissions reduction target, had welcomed his net zero emissions by 2050 plan and updated emissions projections showing Australia was on track to slash emissions by up to 35 per cent by the end of the decade.

Mr Bainimarama tweeted at the conference that Australia’s pledge was “a start” but that he had urged Mr Morrison to “show us a concrete plan to halve emissions by 2030.”