Five years after Scott Morrison’s Coalition government opted out of a global climate change fund for developing countries, the Albanese Labor government is buying back in, with a contribution of $50 million and a further $100 million dedicated to a separate Pacific focused fund.
In a joint statement from ministers Chris Bowen, Penny Wong, Pat Conroy and Jenny McAllister, the federal government said it would contribute a foundational $100 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF) and rejoin the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with the offer of a $50 million boost.
Federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen said from the COP 28 conference in Dubai that rejoining the GCF was part of the Albanese government’s ongoing efforts at “restoring Australia’s climate leadership at home and abroad” since being elected in 2022 – and in this particular case, in Australia’s own back yard.
The PRF is the first Pacific-led, owned and managed climate resilience financing facility, designed to support locally led, small-scale projects across the Pacific region, including through grants for climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, nature-based solutions and projects in response to loss and damage.
Foreign minister Penny Wong says the fund, which is still in the process of being set up, will benefit Pacific communities directly and make access to climate finance “quicker and more accessible.”
“This contribution demonstrates our strong commitment to Pacific climate priorities and we call on other donor countries to follow Australia’s lead and pledge serious funding towards the USD500 million target for the Pacific Resilience Facility,” Wong said.
Similarly, the government says that by rejoining the GCF, Australia can more effectively advocate for global funding to meet Pacific needs.
“I look forward to continuing to work closely with my Pacific colleagues to call for stronger global action to reduce emissions and to ensure decisions on climate finance deliver practical outcomes and maximum impact for the Pacific, and other countries who are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts,” Bowen said.
It’s a welcome departure from the hot mic incident of 2015 when Peter Dutton – then the minister for immigration and now the leader of the opposition – was overheard joking to the then-PM, Tony Abbott about the threat of sea-level rise to Pacific Island nations.
The comments, recorded by a big overhead boom mic, were made all the more unfortunate by the fact that Abbott had just returned from a forum in PNG where he rejected the pleas of low-lying Pacific island nations for a stronger stance on emissions and temperature rises.
The GCF, the world’s largest global climate fund, was set up in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement and has approved projects across 128 countries. The Abbott and Turnbull governments provided $200 million to the fund between 2015 and 2018 before Morrison announced no further would be made on his watch.
At the time, Morrison infamously said Australia could meet its pledge under the Paris Agreement “in a canter,” and without economic pain, as long as it did not spend money on “some global climate fund” or global climate conferences and “all that sort of nonsense.”
Five years later, the messaging is very different.
“Australia is committed to amplifying the collective Pacific voice on the international stage,” the joint statement said on Thursday.
“We are supporting more than 50 Pacific delegates to attend the UN Climate Conference, COP28, in Dubai. We are working closely with Pacific nations at COP28 to ensure it delivers practical outcomes and maximum impact for the region.
“Australia welcomes the decision taken at COP28 to operationalise the Climate Impact Response Fund for supporting particularly vulnerable developing countries respond to climate impacts, including loss and damage.
We look forward to the new fund being set up quickly and delivering for the Pacific.”
And there’s no more joking about “water lapping at the door” of our island neighbours. Rather, at the October Pacific Islands Forum, Australia has also committed to a dedicated intake of the people of Tuvalu, the island with a population of just over 11,000 that is most at threat of rising sea levels.
“Nowhere is the climate threat more profound than in the Pacific,” said minister Conroy.
“I commend the significant work over many years by Pacific Island Forum members to design the Pacific Resilience Facility as a game changing and transformative initiative that is owned by, and delivers for, the region.”
Of course, the timing of Australia’s Pacific climate finance gestures – and the setting, from the stage of the COP 28 talks – is favourable for the Albanese government, which is pitching to co-host UN climate talks in 2026.
But the Australian millions won’t buy the government a free pass for its ongoing support of fossil fuels.
As Greenpeace Australia’s Pacific advisor Shiva Gounden put it: “Contributing to the [GCF] without stopping all new coal and gas projects is like showing up at a fire with a extinguisher in one hand and a flamethrower in the other.”
esearch fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University, says the funding announcement “must not be a substitute” for action on the root causes of the climate crisis.
“Australia must stop approving new coal, oil and gas projects. And we must back agreement at COP28 for the phase-out of fossil fuels,” Morgan writes on The Conversation.
“The only way to actually stop harming communities in the Pacific is to stop adding fuel to the fire. That means stopping the approval of new coal, oil and gas projects and committing to a managed phase-out of fossil fuels.
“Australia has put up its hand to host COP31 with Pacific island countries in 2026. To be a successful host of the UN climate talks, Australia will need to actively support the Pacific’s fight for survival,” says Morgan.
“We can’t just keep throwing money at the problem. We need to be part of the solution.”
