The Pacific Elders’ Voice (PEV) has issued a sharp warning ahead of the UNFCCC COP30, calling on major emitters including Australia and New Zealand to deliver concrete, measurable outcomes to protect vulnerable Pacific nations from the worsening impacts of climate change.
“The forthcoming UNFCCC COP30 must deliver tangible outcomes. Only a commitment to measurable and specific outcomes will enable vulnerable nations like Pacific SIDS to deal with the adverse impacts of climate change on their development and survival,” the group said in a statement.
The PEV commended the Pacific’s success in securing a positive advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states’ obligations regarding climate change, praising Vanuatu for its leadership.
“The ICJ opinion not only provides a new impetus to the climate change dialogue, it provides the negotiators and governments, especially from the developing world, a much stronger legal basis for their demands of doing what is morally and scientifically right,” the statement said.
The elders renewed their call for industrialised nations particularly Australia to meet their Paris Agreement obligations and drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“We reiterate our calls for Australia to urgently phase out gas and coal and stop opening up new coal mining, as it has promised many times to Pacific Leaders at past PIF meetings,” they said.
They also rejected the idea that development aid could replace genuine climate action.
“Real actions on climate change mitigation and adaptation, including for loss and damage, cannot be substituted by ODA, which, in any case, remains inadequate and well below the levels of 0.7 percent GNI, agreed to by the international community as the minimum level of assistance.”
The PEV highlighted key priorities for COP30: more climate finance, stronger adaptation measures, a global phase-out of fossil fuels, and urgent emissions cuts from big polluters to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C.
On Australia’s ambition to co-host COP31 with the Pacific, the elders said the country must first demonstrate genuine climate leadership.
“Whilst we recognise that co-hosting COP31 would enhance the voices of small island states that have been consistently held back from opportunities on the global stage, we feel that Australia as a developed country member of the Pacific Islands Forum family is duty-bound to demonstrate greater and genuine leadership in climate action,” they said.
“This is the time for concrete and specific action.”
The Pacific Elders’ Voice includes former leaders and senior figures from across the region among them former Kiribati President Anote Tong, former Palau President Thomas Remengesau Jr, former Tuvalu PM Enele Sopoaga, Former Forum SG Dame Meg Taylor, former Guam Governor Robert Underwood, Former Fiji Foreign Minister Kaliopate Tavola, fomer Tuvalu PM Bikenibeu Paeniu, Academic Vijay Naidu, and Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop.
The group, an independent body of former Pacific leaders, said its purpose is to “provide guidance and advice that will strengthen Pacific resilience to current and future environmental, security, and human rights threats.”
