Critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu almost collapsed twice amid “fierce” clashes between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga over Australia’s “red lines” on climate change.
Vanuatuan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ralph Regenvanu, who was part of the drafting committee of the forum communique and observed the leaders’ retreat, said there was heated discussion over the Australian delegation’s insistence on the removal of references to coal, setting a target of limiting global warming to below 1.5°C and announcing a strategy for zero emissions by 2050.
He described the discussions as “frank, fierce at times, [with] very strong positions being held.”
“Negotiations almost broke down twice, [with leaders] saying ‘this is not going to happen, we’re not going to have a collective decision,’” he said.
Leaders had to take a break from proceedings, which started at about 9.30am and lasted for almost 12 hours.
“That’s why it took so long,” Regenvanu said. “When things break down, you know there’s a huge amount of frustration. Luckily ... the leaders were able to bring it back.”
Leaders had to cancel meetings and news conferences scheduled for the afternoon, as the retreat stretched through the afternoon and well into the night. An evening feast that was meant to mark the close of the forum, prepared by the community from one of Tuvalu’s eight atolls, complete with a traditional dance performance, began without the leaders.
Regenvanu said one compromise proposed to resolve the impasse was to declare a climate crisis for the Pacific island states, which do not include Australia, rather than for the whole region.
He said Australia had agreed to that “in total blindness to what’s happening in their own country.”
“On emissions reduction and dealing with your own climate, Australia is out there, they’re not with us,” he said. “Pretty much on everything else we’re on the same team, in terms of mitigation, adaptation, making sure there’s resourcing for all this; it’s only in terms of domestic emissions strategy that Australia is way out.”
Asked whether the breakdowns came because of Australia’s refusal to budge on its positions on climate change, Regenvanu said: “That would not be an incorrect assumption.”
He said it was mostly Sopoaga who took the fight to Australia.
Speaking yesterday morning at a joint news conference with Morrison, Sopoaga said he had told the Australian prime minister during the retreat: “’You are concerned about saving your economies, your situation in Australia, I’m concerned about saving my people in Tuvalu and likewise other leaders of small island countries.’”
“That was the tone of the discussion,” Sopoaga said. “Please don’t expect that [Australia] comes and we bow down or that ... we were exchanging flarey language, not swearing, but of course you know, expressing the concerns of leaders and I was very happy with the exchange of ideas, it was frank. Prime minister Morrison, of course, stated his position and I stated my position and [that of] other leaders: We need to save these people.”
Despite the concessions to Australia throughout the communique and climate change statement, Sopoaga said he thought leaders had achieved “probably the best outcome given the context and circumstances.”
Regenvanu said that apart from the five red lines that “compromised” the documents, the resulting statement was a “stronger statement on climate change than the forum has ever made.”
“That’s the positive,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese