Australia's fossil fuel expansion 'slap in the face' to Pacific nations

As she sits crossed legged on the floor inside a large tent, 66-year-old Marica Malumuca describes the place she's called home for the past five years.

"When it rains heavily it feels like we're living in a balloon, because we can see the parts of the tent bulging where it's filling up," she said.

Ms Malumuca's village, Nabavatu, was declared unsafe in 2021 after two cyclones cracked the ground beneath it, and she was moved to a temporary settlement in Savadrua.

There are 37 tents at the temporary site; some can fit three people and others accommodate up to seven. Ms Malumuca's son, Sami Veloko, moved home from the city to look after her as they wait for Nabavatu to be rebuilt.

"Those people who stay in these tents, they used to stay in a good house, a cement house, a wooden house, of a high quality," he said.

"You cannot believe, even they themselves cannot believe, that they stay in this kind of tent."

Small island states are already being disproportionately affected by displacement as climate change drives more extreme weather.

The United Nations warned the impacts of tropical cyclones have become more severe due to rising sea levels and an increase in heavy precipitation.

Over half of Pacific Island countries' infrastructure is located in coastal areas that at risk from rising seas, which happens as higher temperatures melt glaciers and ice sheets.

As world leaders prepare to descend on Mr Veloko's home country for high-level climate talks he has a message for them.

"We are getting the effect of climate change and we are the vulnerable people, the Pacific people," he said.

"Because of what they have contributed to carbon dioxide, the industrialisation that they have developed in their countries, we are getting the worst of it."

Climate diplomacy at the heart of security strategy

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will join global leaders at the pre-COP event which will feature preparatory talks ahead of next month's United Nations COP31 climate summit.

Australia has led the charge for the lead-up talks to be held in the Pacific and is spending millions of dollars on the event as part of its broader regional security strategy to become the "partner of choice" for the Pacific islands.

The Albanese government has vigorously pursued a series of bilateral security deals with Pacific nations since coming to office including Vanuatu, Fiji, Tuvalu, Nauru and Papua New Guinea, with almost all of them including commitments to act on climate change.

According to the Lowy Institute, Australia remains the Pacific's largest bilateral donor and biggest development partner, having spent almost $19 billion of a committed $20.6 billion.

Wes Morgan is a research associate with the Institute for Climate Risk and Response at UNSW who lived and worked in the Pacific for over a decade and said the federal government understands that to become the Pacific's partner of choice it must act on the region's key security threat.

"That is why there has been the inclusion of commitments on climate change in these bilateral security arrangements, but more broadly why Australia is working with Pacific island countries to drive global action on climate change," he said.

"That's why Australia had its hand up to host the UN climate talks with the Pacific."

But Dr Morgan said Australia remaining one of the world's largest fossil fuel exporters "flies in the face of the narrative Australia's pursuing with Pacific Island countries".

"Australia's biggest contribution to the climate crisis is the export of coal and gas, so the emissions associated with Australia's exports of coal and gas more than doubled the emissions from Australia's entire domestic economy," he said.

"Continuing to open new gas fields [and] continuing to expand coal mines is a slap in the face for Pacific governments that are looking for Australia to work with them on what they see as an existential threat."

Calls for Australia to stop fossil fuel expansion

The Pacific climate talks come days after the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission approved the expansion of a major coal mine in the Hunter Valley, which will now go to the Commonwealth for approval.

The plans will allow Hunter Valley Operations to extract an estimated 430 million tonnes of coal, which environmentalists warn will lock in devastating climate impacts.

The decision is set to loom over pre-COP, with some Pacific leaders repeatedly calling for Australia to stop expanding fossil fuels.

Australia was one of the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) leaders that endorsed the Boe Declaration on Regional Security in 2018, which names climate change as the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of Pacific peoples and commits to limit global warming to 1.5C.

But Vanuatu's Climate Minister Ralph Regenvanu said Australia was not doing enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions during last month's PIF, just a day after Australia's Resources Minister Madeline King opened a new gas project in the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin.

"Australia is a major producer of fossil fuels. We all know fossil fuels are the primary driver of the climate crisis," he said.

"The very least a country like Australia should be doing is stopping future expansion, and it's not doing that."

Tuvalu's Prime Minister Feleti Teo has warned planned fossil fuel expansions in countries like Australia represent a "death sentence" for his nation.

Future of the Pacific-Australia relationship

Canberra has long sought to position itself as a regional leader amid concerns over China's presence in the region.

A defence and security briefing published earlier this year said while China's activities in the Pacific are a "concern" for Australian security strategy, Beijing's security ties with Pacific nations are minimal compared to their expanding trade and development activities.

The Pacific has also largely rebuffed efforts from China for security and policing cooperation, and a Free Trade Area.

Admiral Chris Barrie from the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group acknowledged the Australian government's contradictory actions on climate change could impact trust, but he expects Pacific island states to still view the country as their key partner.

"Australia exports coal to countries all around the globe, and we are contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. We are contributing to what these islands are experiencing, and that's a conundrum for them," he said.

"Where else are they going to go is a big question, and I don't think it is China. I'm sure they don't see China in the same way as they see us.

"And also they don't share much with those Indigenous communities in China. They share more with our Indigenous communities, so there are lots of reasons why they've always been looking at us and hoping for better."

Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said he expected large fossil fuel exporters to naturally reduce their supply as the world transitioned to clean energy.

He said the best way Australia could help the Pacific is by supporting the adoption of renewable energy.

"They have a wealth of [fossil fuels], they want to grow their economy, they've got to look after the people and while there's a need out there they will continue to supply," Mr Rabuka said.

"They would not be supplying these things if there was no demand. The demand is there because there's no alternative.

"Helping us finding alternatives, particularly for small island nations, it will be renewable energy using the natural resources that we have."

The Albanese government has been criticised for failing to attract a large number of world leaders to pre-COP, but Mr Rabuka was positive about the expected turnout.

"Even if leaders do not come their delegations are equipped to participate in the talks and to take back what they see during their tours of the various places where they will be visiting," he said.