FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned Tuesday that Australia faces a summer of floods, cyclones and extreme heat as he joined Pacific leaders at a preparatory meeting for the U.N. COP31 climate summit, where representatives of 30 nations toured land-reclamation works on low-lying Tuvalu, The Guardian and Reuters reported.
“Climate change is not a problem for the future. It is here right now, and we know that sea levels here in the western Pacific are rising at more than twice the global average,” Albanese said. “In Australia, we are expecting a summer of floods, of cyclones, of extreme heat.” He told the visitors in Tuvalu: “Here in Tuvalu, we are seeing what action can look like. It’s about people.” The pre-COP gathering is being hosted by Fiji and Tuvalu ahead of COP31 in Türkiye next month; Australia is leading this year’s negotiations.
Delegates watched sand dredged from the Funafuti lagoon being used to reclaim about six hectares of land, part of roughly $50 million in donor-funded work that has also built sea walls and barriers. Project manager Alan Resture said the effort, the third in a series, will soon have added about 21 hectares to Tuvalu’s main island. Tuvalu’s roughly 10,000 people live on land averaging about two meters above sea level. “You are standing on front-line soil,” Foreign Minister Paulson Panapa told the leaders. “Promises will not hold back rising tides.”
Pacific leaders pressed for faster money and deeper emissions cuts. “Why should countries like Tuvalu take on more debt to protect ourselves from a climate crisis we did so little to cause?” Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo asked. Fiji’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, said the commitment to transition away from fossil fuels “was agreed to by all of us in Dubai” in 2023. “It is not a new ask, and it is not open for renegotiation.” Tuvalu’s climate change director, Jamie Ovia, said flood and storm-surge damage could cost $63 million a year by 2100, more than the country’s GDP.
Attendance fell short of Canberra’s hopes: 11 of the 14 presidents and prime ministers on the Australian government’s list came from Pacific island states, with the rest from Australia, Mauritius and East Timor, Reuters reported. Australia, which is bankrolling the meeting, has drawn criticism as a major coal and gas exporter that continues to approve fossil fuel projects.
Sources: The Guardian, Reuters
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