Pacific Island Countries Blindsided in Climate Conference

The gridlock and the meager offerings from COP28, this year’s U.N. climate change conference, left many leaders from the Pacific Island states – some of the countries most at risk from climate change and rising sea levels – frustrated. 

Adding insult to injury, the final text of the first Global Stocktake, billed as the central outcome of COP28, was rushed through before midday on December 13, before anyone knew what was happening, leaving many in the plenary hall looking about in confusion. 

According to Joseph Sikulu, Pacific director of 350.org, it was a “strategic” move to silence objections from the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), who were not present at the time. 

After the final plenary, Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Republic of Marshall Islands, told the waiting press, “It was shocking because we were not there when it happened. AOSIS wasn't in the room… You need everyone in the room, everyone at the table.” 

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Conference of Parties (COP) procedures require consensus on every letter of the text. Every nation must agree on the final document, which makes the move to exclude AOSIS all the more alarming. The need for consensus is often a flashpoint of anger directed toward the annual climate meetings, with many onlookers deriding a process that bends to the lowest common denominator, but as Stege explained, it goes both ways: “The reason the UNFCCC process matters to us is that we have been able to be at the table, we have a voice.” 

While the COP28 final agreement calls for a “transition away” from fossil fuels “in a just orderly and equitable manner,” it leaves space for continuing use of such fuels through technology to reduce emissions (such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage). Critics say such technologies don’t fully mitigate the damage of burning fossil fuels and that a full phase-out is needed instead. 

Although begrudgingly accepting the adoption, AOSIS called the document “a litany of loopholes” and maintained “it is not enough for us to reference the science and then make agreements that ignore what the science is telling us.”

“Whilst we didn’t turn the page on the fossil fuel era in Dubai, this outcome is the beginning of the end,” U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in his closing speech, summarizing the results of COP28. “Now all governments and businesses need to turn these pledges into real-economy outcomes, without delay.”

As COP28 drew to a close, party delegates, observers, and media may well have wanted to put the whole process behind them, and few are looking ahead after the bruising final 48 hours of negotiations. Australia, however, has eyes on hosting COP31 in three years.

Australia’s bid would be co-hosted by a yet-to-be-determined Pacific Island country. This “Pacific COP” is far from a sure thing, despite Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen telling journalists he was not “too stressed.” But support from the Pacific neighborhood will be crucial. 

Despite claims to “be back in the tent” under a Labor government, many have pushed back on Australia’s climate leadership U-turn. 

Stege did not mince words: “We aren't blind to the fact that Australia is one of the world's biggest fossil fuel exporters.”