Tuvalu’s climate minister says Australia’s decision to approve three coalmine expansions calls into question the country’s claim to be a “member of the Pacific family” and undermines the Australian case to co-host the 2026 UN climate summit with island nations.
Dr Maina Talia said last week’s mine approvals, which analysts say could generate more than 1.3bn tonnes of carbon dioxide across their lifetime once the coal is shipped and burned overseas, was “a direct threat to our collective future”.
“I have made my view on new coal projects very clear at last month’s Pacific Islands Forum: fossil fuels are killing us, all of us. It is therefore immoral and unacceptable to any country to open new fossil fuel projects, as Australia has recently done with the three coalmine expansion projects it has just approved,” Talia told Guardian Australia.
“This is a matter of survival for my country of Tuvalu and for other nations in the Pacific. Australia calls itself a member of the Pacific family but this recent decision puts this statement in question.
“How can Australia justify co-hosting a Cop [UN climate conference] with the Pacific at the same time as it continues to open new fossil fuels projects that are putting our very existence at risk?”
Talia’s position was broadly backed by Anote Tong, a former Kiribati president and now the chair of the Pacific Elders’ Voice. He said Pacific countries should not support Australia’s proposal to co-host Cop31, the year-ending UN climate summit scheduled for 2026, in partnership with the Pacific while it continued to expand its fossil fuel operations.
“I don’t believe the Pacific can be part of that when a country [Australia] is doing the very opposite of what a Cop is supposed to be doing,” he said. “It seems a total contradiction to Australia’s professed position of being active on climate change.”
Tong said if Pacific leaders did choose to back Australia’s hosting bid they should make their support conditional on it “doing something really significant” on the climate crisis.
The approval decisions by the Australian environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, allow Mach Energy’s existing mine at Mount Pleasant to expand and operate until 2048, Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri mine until 2044 and Yancoal’s Ravensworth mine until 2032. The expansions could respectively lead to up to 876m, 475m and 6m additional tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere respectively.
The announcement of the approvals came less than a month after Australia and Tuvalu ratified a climate and security deal at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga. The agreement recognises the low-lying atoll nation is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and commits the pair “to work together in the face of the existential threat posed by climate change”.
Anthony Albanese briefed leaders at the forum on Australia’s Cop31 proposal. While Pacific countries have largely welcomed the plan, the Australian prime minister received some pushback. The president of the Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine, responded with a pointed intervention, saying “action starts at home”, that meant “sacrifices” and she hoped Australia would have “a good story to tell at Cop31” on its transition away from fossil fuels.
A decision on where the conference will be held is expected at the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan next month, with Turkey also in the running,
An Australian government spokesperson said it was “getting on with the job of transforming Australia into a renewable energy superpower”. Renewable energy was expected to provide more than 40% of the country’s electricity needs this year, they said.
The spokesperson said the former Liberal-National Coalition government approved “up to twice as many coal projects as renewables”, while under Labor “renewables are now outstripping coal 10-to-one”.
“Our bid to host Cop31 in partnership with the Pacific would support the work we are already undertaking with key partners to accelerate their own energy transitions and elevate Pacific voices, raising awareness of the climate challenges faced by the Pacific,” they said.
Plibersek has defended the approval decisions, saying the government had to act in accordance “with the facts and the national environment law”.
She has said the emissions would be considered under the safeguard mechanism, which requires major industrial sites to either cut direct emissions or pay for carbon offsets. The safeguard applies to emissions released from the mines in Australia, but not CO2 released offshore after the coal is exported.
Talia said Tuvalu applauded the Federated States of Micronesia’s “courageous stand” in New York last week, when it joined a campaign for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. Fourteen mostly island nations, including Tuvalu, have backed a treaty on fossil fuels. They were supported last week by the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.
“As Pacific island nations, we know the stakes better than anyone. Yet while the Federated States of Micronesia and the Pacific are fighting to protect our cultures and people, we continue to witness the expansion of coalmines around the globe,” Talia said. “There is no room for ambiguity.”
The director of the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education, a human rights organisation with a Pacific focus, said Australia’s approval of new coal projects “flies in the face of its rhetoric” about being a Pacific family member.
“When a member of your family is sinking, you help them to safety. You do not push their head further down into the water,” ‘Alopi Latukefu said.
