The prime minister of Fiji has warned Australia to reduce its coal emissions and do more to combat climate change as regional leaders prepare to gather in Tuvalu ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum this week.

Speaking in Tuvalu at a climate change conference ahead of the forum on Monday, Frank Bainimarama appealed directly to Australia to transition away from coal-powered energy and asked its government “to more fully appreciate” the “existential threat” facing Pacific nations.

“I appeal to Australia to do everything possible to achieve a rapid transition from coal to energy sources that do not contribute to climate change,” said Bainimarama, who presided over the UN’s peak climate change body, Conference of the Parties, in 2017. “That transition should be just for your own people and just for us here in the Pacific, where we face an existential threat that you don’t face and challenges we expect your governments and people to more fully appreciate.

“Put simply, the case for coal as an energy source cannot continue to be made if every nation is to meet the net zero emission target by 2050 that has been set by the UN secretary general and every other responsible leader of the climate struggle.”

Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, was expected to come under serious pressure from other leaders at the forum for the country’s perceived inaction on reducing emissions.

Tuvalu, a country of just 11,000 people three hours north of Fiji, is one of the most vulnerable to rising sea levels and could be rendered uninhabitable in the coming century.

The prime minister of Tuvalu, Enele Sopoaga, said he had concerns about Australia’s coal policy, which he had previously expressed to Morrison, and its use of carryover credits as a means of reducing emissions. He said the positive relationship with Australia could change if the future of his people was not taken seriously.

“I hope we can be more understanding that the people of Tuvalu and small island countries are already submerged, are already going underwater,” Sopoaga said.

“If our friend Australia does not show them any regard, any respect, it is a different thing, we cannot be partner with that thinking. I certainly hope we do not come to that juncture to say we cannot go on talking about partnerships regardless of whether it is [the Australian government’s Pacific] Step-Up or [New Zealand’s Pacific] Reset, while you keep pouring your coal emissions into the atmosphere that is killing my people and drowning my people into the water.”

This year will be the first time a Fijian prime minister has attended the summit since Fiji was suspended in 2009 for refusing to call elections.

Though Fiji was reinstated into the forum in 2014, Bainimarama has not attended since then, saying in 2010 that he would not attend while Australia and New Zealand were part of the group because they wielded too much influence, telling the ABC: “I don’t think they should be in the forum, they’re not Pacific islanders.”

Bainimarama addressed these comments in his speech in Tuvalu, calling Australia and New Zealand “great nations on our perimeter who are part of our organisation”.

“My views until now on their place at this forum are well known,” he said to laughter around the room. “But we are in a new era in which both countries are attempting to re-engage with us in a more respectful and inclusive way and I, for one, warmly welcome that.”

The prime minister of Tonga, Akilisi Pōhiva, will also attend the conference despite being seriously ill. When he arrived at the airport in Tuvalu on Sunday he was immediately driven away rather than walking through the terminal for the official welcome.

Pōhiva told the Guardian on Monday that he was attending because the region was at a crossroads due to climate change.

“My physical presence in the meetings is significant to me,” he said. “I’m sure it is mostly likely that this will be my last attendance at a forum so it was very important to me to be here.”

Morrison and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern will not be arriving in Tuvalu until Wednesday, unlike most regional leaders who are already there.



