Frank Bainimarama says the only way to guarantee the survival of Pacific islands is for Australia to shift away from fossil fuels

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Australia must not put the interests of the coal industry above the lives of Pacific nations battling climate change, Fiji’s prime minister has told Scott Morrison.

At an official dinner in Fiji to mark a newly announced partnership between the two nations, Frank Bainimarama explicitly told Australia to do better.

Morrison has brushed off the remarks, telling reporters that Australia is “already pursuing” policies to deal with climate change “in a way that I believe is consistent with what the [Fijian] prime minister is expecting of Australia”.

Bainimarama said the only way to guarantee the survival of Pacific island countries was for Australia to shift away from fossil fuels.

“I urged your predecessor repeatedly to honour his commitment to clean energy,” Bainimarama said on Thursday night in Suva.

“From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples and vulnerable people in the world over.

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“Rising seas threaten whole communities, forcing them to endure the trauma of relocating from land they’ve endured for generations.

“Fijian farmers are watching their crops perish in soil that has been spoiled by the heightened salinity that is associated with sea level rise.”

Bainimarama said the evidence of climate change was clear in the disappearing coastlines in Bangladesh and worsening flooding in the United States.

“And in Australia as well, where soaring temperatures have reached record highs in several major cities just this week,” he said. “This cannot be written off as a difference of opinion.

“Consensus from the scientific community is clear and the existential threat posed to Pacific island countries is certain.”

Morrison responded in his speech, praising Bainimarama for Fiji’s global leadership on climate change.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scott Morrison has praised Fiji’s global leadership on climate change. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

“I pay respect in particular to Mr Bainimarama’s international leadership on climate change and oceans,” Morrison said.

“You have heard him speak passionately about this this evening and it was that same passion he took into the leadership of the COP process over the past 12 months.”

In Vanuatu on Wednesday, Morrison promised Pacific nations Australia would directly fund projects tackling the impact of climate change. But he said Vanuatu’s leaders had not asked Australia to do more to curb emissions.

At a press conference Morrison told reporters Australia had already invested $200m in climate resilience in the Pacific, with a further $100m to follow.

“We won’t be doing it through global climate funds or anything like that, we’ll be doing it directly,” he said. “It’s our home and we’ll be working with fellow family members here to address the impacts of climate change here in the Pacific.”

Morrison said Australia has made “solid commitments when it comes to emissions reduction, and we have been keeping them and we will keep them”.

The Coalition government estimates that by 2020 Australia will beat its Kyoto target by 300 million tonnes but climate scientists and economists have advised it is not on track to meet its 26-28% emissions reduction target by 2030.

Australia has sought to exploit a controversial loophole, using carryover carbon credits from the Kyoto protocol to meet its Paris targets.