Press conference, Nadi, Fiji

MINISTER BOWEN: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming in large numbers this morning. I'm delighted to be joined by my friend Minister Lynda, my friend and partner, and co-host of Pre-COP.

One of the opportunities of PRECOP is to be able to see firsthand not only the importance of mitigation and reducing emissions, but what we can do together when it comes to resilience and adaptation. Yesterday in Tuvalu, we not only heard very moving presentations from a Year 8 student who dreams of being a doctor, but talked about the impact of climate change on her own community and saw firsthand the impacts of climate change on Tuvalu.

We also saw firsthand a project dealing with the impacts of climate change, where Australia and New Zealand are partnering with Tuvalu to increase the land mass of that island by 30 per cent and to give them a chance at survival in an age of climate change. That's resilience and adaptation. But there's so much more to do.

And the Pacific Resilience Fund, which we're showcasing here at Pre-COP today and inviting countries to partner with Pacific countries, is the case in point designed by the Pacific for the Pacific. Can I just warmly welcome this morning's announcements of a $10 million contribution from the Government of Fiji, just announced by Prime Minister Rambuka, and a $2.2 million US contribution from the Government of Denmark, which shows that around the world, countries are taking the opportunity of Pre-COP to lift their engagement in the Pacific and to make more contributions, and I'm reliably advised there are more announcements coming in relation to the Pacific Resilience Fund during Pre-COP, during this period.

Step by step, we're building the Pacific Resilience Fund to its targeted total, and we're doing that in partnership around the world. But also, there's an opportunity for bilateral cooperation across the board. So today, I'm very pleased to announce that Australia is making a $3 million contribution through CIRCAR, the Climate Infrastructure for Resilient Coastlines and Riverbanks Project, which will be focused in this instance on Fiji, with an upgrade to the Kings Road and Queens Road in central and western provinces of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati and Tuvalu.

Four projects in total, to help these countries adjust to climate change, particularly focused on the coastlines, with erosion, with rising sea levels, with the natural disasters, which are increasingly less natural and more frequent. We know that this is taking an increasing proportion of the GDPs of Pacific Islands, both in terms of disaster recovery, but also the need to invest in resilience.

And investments now can reduce that cost in the future after natural disasters. So this is partnership at its core. Can I also welcome very strongly the agreement last night at the plenary session to a very strong leader's statement underlining the need to continue the transition away from fossil fuels, to work together, to continue the transition when it comes to renewable energy, to focus on the needs of the Pacific.

A very strong statement, which is a very good launching pad for COP 31, and shortly I'll open the plenary session, which is the formal beginning of the formal part of pre-COP, where we finalise the agenda for COP 31, where we narrow the runway for outcomes. That's, if you like, the working part of the agenda, the technical part of the agenda, which will start in just a few minutes, in terms of finalising the working program for COP 31.

But it's an opportunity to work with friends and partners, and no greater friend and partner than Lynda, on these projects. So I welcome Fiji's announcements, and I'm pleased to make that announcement on behalf of Australia today. MINISTER TABUYA: Vinaka Chris.

Good morning, everyone. Well, it's been three days of pre-COP. Finally got near to the official part of the pre-COP program.

But I want to thank my friend Chris, as well as Tuvalu, for the successful events in the last two days, especially the leaders' trip to Tuvalu, which went safely. And the leaders, especially those that are not from the Pacific, got an opportunity to see firsthand what our people are facing in the Pacific. And even for our world leaders who didn't make it here to pre-COP, it's typical that world leaders don't attend pre-COP.

But they were able to also tune in digitally. They were able to see it online. This is the age of digital media, where they could tune in, and they were able to also watch firsthand as we went live from Tuvalu for that visit.

We are, as the Pacific, united more than ever. We saw the signing of the Declaration, the Taku Pakasoa, which means strengthening unity, that we as Pacific and world leaders have signed last night to take this declaration, a political declaration, or a coming together of political will to take Pacific priorities to COP 31. And that includes the 1.5 degrees, the need to keep within the 1.5 degrees Celsius so that there is no overshoot.

Now, of course, for our countries, it's not a distant threat. It's happening to us right now. And we need to be able to help our people to survive.

And I thank the government of Australia. Thankyou, Chris. Congratulations on the announcement for $3 million for CIRCAR, the Climate Resilience Facility, to build something as basic as roads in our countries here in the Pacific.

Yes, we have a lot of roads around the coastal communities. They need to be moved up higher. A lot have been washed away because of natural disasters.

And, of course, the sea level rise. We saw Tuvalu up to 21 centimetres, almost a centimetre- a 30-centimeter ruler of sea level rise in the last few decades. So this is real for us in the Pacific.

Of course, climate finance. We saw the Pacific Resilience Facility and commitment from our leaders to put into the facility. And Fiji is very happy to make that commitment of US dollars, $10 million.

So we're not just here to ask our partners around the world to help us. We are helping ourselves. And, yes, we cannot ask the world to help us when we need to be able to help ourselves as well.

And I thank the Government of Australia for continued support in terms of helping us here in Fiji and across the Pacific to cope with the effects of climate change. Oceans. We are the blue Pacific continent.

We are big ocean states, bosses. And we need to get the oceans on the climate agenda at COP 31. I thank the commitment of Turkiye as COP 31 President as well as Australia as chair of negotiations to keep pushing for oceans to be put on the agenda, finally.

And we need this as a Pacific because even though we may be losing land, we're thankful to the UN Declaration on Sea Level Rise that has recognised the permanence of our EEZs despite us losing land. And that's a landmark decision. We need to see that all the way through to COP 31 and the Pacific is very happy to go to the world.

And we thank our global leaders who made it here in person and those that tuned in and have shown their support. And we continue to ask our leaders to please invest in our Pacific Resilience Facility and help us to be able to help ourselves as well. And now we will have some time for questions and I'll turn the time back to Chris.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Lynda. Out of respect for our Fijian hosts, we'll go first to the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] First of all, you mentioned that the road was blocked [indistinct]. Well, it's specifically the Kings and Queens Road, which is the main access around Viti Levu. And I think that you know when you drive around there are parts that need to be repaired.

And so the commitment from Australia will help us at least to repair those. There are some parts that do need to be relocated. It may cost a bit more, of course.

We as a government of Fiji too, from our national budget, need to support that. So this is support from Australia. We as a country need to lead that ourselves as well.

JOURNALIST: The commitment made by Fiji to the PRF, is this a one-off payment or will this be done over a period of time. It's over a period of time. It's not right away.

Of course, we need to also consider our national budget arrangements. But the main point is that the commitment has come. USD $10 million.

And we will continue to see how we can capitalize on that and may increase over time if we are able to. Thank you. Fiji Sun, you're done?

Thank you. JOURNALIST: Minister Bowen, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hasn't taken one question from media during Pre-COP, is this acceptable [indistinct] of scrutiny? Well, if you want to talk about scrutiny, this is my second press conference of Pre-COP.

The only reason I didn't hold a press conference yesterday is because I was coming and going to Tuvalu and didn't get back until well into the evening. I'm here as the ministerial counterpart of Lynda. I'm holding a press conference today.

Lynda informs me the Prime Minister of Fiji hasn't held a press conference either. Leaders are engaged with each other. I'm here answering questions and will do again tomorrow.

JOURNALIST: Are you saying you're [indistinct] for the Prime Minister? I'm saying I'm holding a press conference. JOURNALIST: Can I ask a question of Minister Tabuya.

The PRF, we've got $180 million. Half of it is coming from Pacific Island Governments, is that enough from the lobal community, how much more should we expect? Yes, the target is USD $500 million.

JOURNALIST: So how close to the target are we going to get by the end of COP31? And is enough coming through? Well, I am optimistic.

I mean, this is Pre-COP. It's just a preparation for the large COP. This will be our take to COP31, and we hope our global leaders will come on board to support us here in the Pacific.

JOURNALIST: Minister Bowen you said Australia wanted world leaders to attend the leaders summit in Tuvalu, yesterday just two world leaders outside of the Pacific came to that event [indistinct]. No, I said we wanted to bring the world to Tuvalu. Yesterday we did.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] Well, you can put your own implications on it. I'll be accountable for my words. Thank you.

Yesterday, we had, I think it's fair to say, Lynda, a very great day where Tuvalu, which is the least visited country in the world, one of the most important days, I think, that Tuvalu has seen in a long time as two plane loads of prime ministers, presidents, ministers, the Minister of India, the Minister of Saudi - Minister of the UAE, ministers from right around the world, as well as prime ministers and presidents, and lead negotiators, the head of the Asian Development Bank, who saw firsthand the need for resilience funding, the head of the Green Climate Fund, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, the COP 31 President, the COP 29 President, all this for the first time, going to Tuvalu, going to the Pacific.

So we said we wanted to focus and lift the world's attention on the issues of the Pacific, small island developing states in particular, and I think it ticked that box. It achieved that, and certainly in my conversations yesterday and today with the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, with the Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum, with the Tuvaluan minister, they couldn't be more pleased with yesterday's event, and they certainly said to me that they can speak for themselves, obviously, but they certainly said to me that they were delighted with the lifting of the focus on their issues, and as I said at the outset, we heard from a Year 8 student, we heard from an elder, we saw the map, which I've seen before, in my previous visit to Tuvalu, but great to open it up.

This is about COP, and about focusing the attention of COP on the issues of the Pacific. Key decision-makers at COP 31 were there yesterday. That's a good thing.

JOURNALIST: Minister Bowen, some of the senior Tuvaluan leaders felt disrespected by Australia, they felt that Australia had basically taken over for [indistinct] Well, no-one's raised that with me, and certainly the Government of Tuvalu and everyone I spoke to was very delighted with the effort that we took. JOURNALIST: Why didn't you wear your for? Look, it was offered to me, I accepted it.

I'm advised it's perfectly acceptable to do so, and we're focused on- can we just focus on issues of sea-level rise and the impacts on the people of Tuvalu, which is what I'm focused on. JOURNALIST: Last Friday, climate change- Vanuatu's climate change Minister Ralph Regenvanu said he was hoping for more world leaders to attend precisely to raise that global profile of [indistinct] of the Pacific.

Do you agree with his concern that the lack of leaders shows a lack of attention [indistinct]. You can always, sure, hope for more, and, you know, this is our first step. But, as I said, this is about COP 31 and the key decision-makers in COP 31, and I think our effort has been to increase the Pacific focus on COP 31, and we've managed to do that.

JOURNALIST: The declaration endorsed by leaders yesterday reiterates that every fraction of [indistinct] accelerates the impacts of climate change, and increases the risk of irreversible loss. With that in mind, will the government reject the expansion of the HVO coal mine in New South Wales? That's a environmental and planning decision for Minister Watt, in keeping with his obligations under the law.

JOURNALIST: Is the government- So the government's considering extending- I think it's a matter of public record that there's an application before Minister Watt, which is a legal process, which he must be very careful of, his legal obligations, and other cabinet ministers should equally be careful and respect his independence in that process. JOURNALIST: I'd just like to thank you both for the efforts that you're making to bring the world to Tuvalu and to the Pacific.

I wonder as we head to COP31 in Turkiye, whether there's an opportunity to connect Antarctica and Greenland and the impacts of the melt to this causing sea level rise causing some of the dramatic changes here, and if that can be addressed as we move forward. Thank you for the question. Obviously, we're dealing with a whole range of issues at COP31.

I'm delighted that the Foreign Minister of Nepal is here, and I think that shows a strong commitment, given everything Nepal's dealing with at the moment. And he raised in the plenary last night the impacts of climate change, obviously, on his country, with the terrible, terrible natural disaster of a few weeks ago, which is not directly what you're talking about, but analogous, I think, to the impacts of flooding.

And, of course, we'll be dealing with all those things at COP 31. Maybe one more? JOURNALIST: Minister, in your talks with Pacific leaders, what have they been saying to you about the correlation, I guess, between Australia's greenhouse gas emissions and then, I guess, like a parent who says, do as I say, not as I do, you're kind of pushing for other countries to do more.

How do you reconcile that, and what are the conversations about it? Well, Lynda may choose to add, but in all my conversations with ministers, they recognise the sea change of approach in Australia over the last four years. The fact that, as the Prime Minister said yesterday, at his first COP, when he was Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Australia's renewable energy target was 2 per cent, and now we're at 50, and shooting for 82.

And that's a sea change, and, of course, that's Australia's domestic approach. Internationally, here we are talking about how you transition away from fossil fuels by building renewables. No transition away from fossil fuels until and unless countries around the world build the renewables to replace them, as we're doing in Australia, as many countries are doing.

Last week, I saw the largest solar farm in the world in Saudi Arabia, for example. So countries are on this journey, but you've got to replace the old with the new, and that's what building renewables through a transition is. Thank you.

Yes, the Pacific is committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels. As we know, next year Tuvalu is hosting the second conference on TAFF, or Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, partnering with Ireland. So we're very thankful that this is happening.

And so that's our commitment under the 1.5 degrees. We recognise countries that do need to continue what they do, because until we replace it fully, we still need the world running. We still need our countries to run, so we are aware of that.

But just on the whole, I want to say thank you to Australia for bringing Pre-COP to Fiji. Thank you for your support. It's something we know ourselves would not have been able to convene, but we thank the support of Australia for being able to bring it here to Fiji and Tuvalu.

And we also thank especially to the people of Australia for watching, which includes a very large Fijian diaspora, for that matter, and the Pacific. Thank you for believing in us, and thank you for letting us host. And we look forward to the remaining rest of the days to complete our work.

And we'll see everyone in COP31. Thank you very much. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.