Pacific climate meeting has few leaders confirmed

A Pacific climate meeting to be held in Fiji and Tuvalu on October 5-8 has only a handful of leaders confirmed so far, but Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday it would still raise global attention on climate change.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Pacific Islands Forum in Koror, Palau, Albanese denied he had been unrealistic in expecting world leaders to attend the gathering, which comes one month before the annual UN climate summit, COP31, in Turkey.

“We always anticipated when it comes to pre-COP events, there normally aren't lots of leaders at it,” Albanese said. He said no leader at the Pacific forum had criticised Australia's support for bringing the pre-COP meeting to the region.

The October meeting is due to take place in Fiji and include a leaders' retreat in low-lying Tuvalu. Albanese said he would attend.

Turkey and Australia agreed last year that the Pacific would host preparatory meetings as part of a compromise over the 2026 climate conference. Under the deal, Turkey will host COP31 from November 9 in Antalya, while Australia will chair the negotiations.

Fijian Foreign Minister Sakiasi Ditoka said Tuesday that only a handful of countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, Cape Verde, Thailand, Maldives and East Timor, had so far confirmed attendance.

Australia's climate minister Chris Bowen, who is president of the COP31 negotiations, said the guest list was “not yet finalised”. He said some people wanted to come but were finding it difficult, while others were likely to attend but had not fully confirmed.

Bowen said preparatory meetings for COP climate summits were not normally held at leader level, but that a small leader-level component would help focus attention on small island developing states and atolls. He said Australia wanted to take participants to Tuvalu “to show the impacts of climate change”.

Tuvalu's climate change minister Maina Talia welcomed the list of attendees, saying it exceeded what Tuvalu had expected. Tuvalu is among the South Pacific nations most immediately threatened by climate change.