The Pacific Island nations’ climate priorities will be discussed this Saturday, October 3, at an international forum in Suva, Fiji, intended to contribute to the region’s positions ahead of COP31, slated for this year.
The meeting “1.5°C to Stay Alive”, at the University of the South Pacific, will bring together researchers, ministers, policymakers and climate experts from Australia and various Pacific countries. The forum’s discussions and conclusions are expected to feed into the first session of the official pre-COP31 program on Monday, October 5.
Organized by the COP Universities Alliance, in partnership with the Institute for Climate Risk & Response at the University of New South Wales, the University of the South Pacific and the University of Melbourne, the gathering aims to place the Pacific countries’ perspectives at the center of the discussions that precede climate negotiations.
“The Pacific countries played a fundamental role in defining the 1.5 °C objective in the Paris Agreement because, for the region, this is not an arbitrary number. It is considered a threshold of survival,” says Wesley Morgan, a researcher at the University of New South Wales and the forum’s organizer, quoted in a statement.
The meeting takes place at a moment when the likelihood of the global average temperature temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels is increasing. For Morgan, this possibility should not mean abandoning the target set in the Paris Agreement.
“The priority should be to limit the peak warming to the lowest possible level, to achieve net zero as quickly as possible, and then to look for ways to lower temperatures again,” he argues.
Ocean warming and climate finance
Among the planned topics are the science associated with limiting global warming, international legal obligations, the rise in ocean temperatures and sea level, adaptation to climate change, and climate finance.
The forum will also examine the implications of a decision by the International Court of Justice on the responsibilities of States for damages related to climate change.
According to Morgan, the issue is particularly relevant for Australia, one of the world’s major exporters of coal and gas. The researcher notes that the country had argued for years that the emissions resulting from the use of the fossil fuels it exports were the responsibility of consuming countries.
“The International Court of Justice has now made clear that major producers of fossil fuels also have obligations to prevent the climate damages associated with the production of fossil fuels,” he says.
Pacific Leadership in Focus
The Marshall Islands’ climate envoy, Tina Stege, will deliver the opening address of the forum. The program concludes with a high-level Talanoa session, a concept associated with an open and inclusive dialogue characteristic of Pacific cultures, with ministers and representatives from the region’s countries.
The gathering will also include Pacific specialists who participate in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as researchers and experts from Australian universities and other countries in the region.
For Morgan, the aim is to strengthen the Pacific countries’ participation in international climate discussions, rather than speaking about the region without directly involving its representatives.
“The Pacific has long been at the forefront of global calls for stronger climate action. This forum recognizes that experience and leadership,” he says.
The organizers believe that hosting discussions of international relevance in the Pacific could help place the region’s experiences, priorities, and solutions at the center of the agenda ahead of COP31.
