ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Thanks for joining us. I'm joined by the Secretary General of the Pacific Island Forum, and also the leaders of Niue, Tonga, FSM, Tuvalu, Palau, Solomon Islands and Fiji is caught up in a meeting. You'll hear from myself and then Minister Bowen, and then on behalf of PIF, President Whipps who is the chair, current chair of the Pacific Island Forum. It is a privilege to be here in Antalya at COP31 with the leaders of our Pacific family. It was a big theme of my speech yesterday at the Leaders' Opening, and it is one of the motivations that we have here. The Pacific is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and we know that countries such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, their very existence is threatened. But also rising sea levels, increased salinity, this is having a massive impact as well on agriculture and on the economies of the Pacific. That's why we have come up with at the previous meeting of the Pacific Island Forum, more than a year ago, Australia was a contributor to the Pacific Resilience Facility. This is a fund created by the Pacific for the Pacific with Pacific values. It's about making sure that the transition that is required will have investment, not just from governments, but we're hopeful of getting investments from the private sector as well. It's designed to deliver simple, timely, and sustainable support directly to communities on the front line of climate change. To date, we have 23 investors, investments not just from the Pacific, but from around the world as well. We welcome more, and we look forward very much to the announcements that will be made at the event that will be held after this media conference. Australia backs it. We want others to back it too. Because the leaders standing here with me know that climate change is not just their first priority; it's their second and third priority as well. This is the entry fee for credibility in the Pacific. So today, my message to government, development partners, financial institutions, investors, and philanthropic organisations is straightforward. Back this Pacific-owned and Pacific-led solution. I'll have the Minister and then President Whipps.
CHRIS BOWEN, MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Thanks very much, PM. As the PM said, climate change is the number one security threat in the Pacific. The number one issue when it comes to the very survival of some of our Pacific families. That's one of the reasons why Australia put itself forward for this role to ensure that Pacific voices, which to be very frank with you, have not been heard at COPs before, are heard at this one. And Pre-COP, for example, we were very pleased to welcome the President of the Asian Development Bank and the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, and we very much welcome their investment of $1 billion in a regional climate program covering 14 countries, a direct result of our engagement, particularly through rejoining the Green Climate Fund. Also, the Green Climate Fund opening its first ever regional office in Fiji. Big step forward when it comes to access to finance for the Pacific. The countries that need climate finance the most have been getting it the least. 0.2 percent of the world's climate finance goes to small island developing states for adaptation. We have said we must use this COP to change that, and that is exactly our intention. So obviously, while I can't pre-empt the final results for COP next week because there's a lot of negotiations to go yet, one thing I can say is that the views of the Pacific, we will ensure front and centre of every conversation, including access to financing and keeping 1.5 degrees alive. And as the PM said, part of this is the Pacific Resilience Facility, lifting its profile. At the Pre-COP we were able to get commitments from Denmark, the Netherlands, and Ireland and the UK making announcements, and we'll be showcasing it further in a few minutes' time here, where people who haven't really heard of the Pacific Resilience Facility before getting a chance to hear about it and hopefully engage in it in the coming weeks and months. So, PRF is a very important part of the work we're doing at the Pacific. Can I just say how delighted I am to have the support of all the Pacific family in our endeavours. As we've said, we know this is not easy. You've got to get consensus across 195 countries about everything you do with decisions. But that consensus will very much have, from our point of view, the number one goal of ensuring that views in the Pacific are considered. I've been at five COPs now. I'll be very frank and say the views of the Pacific have not been front and centre on negotiations in the past. That changes at this conference. Mr President.
SURANGEL WHIPPS JR, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF PALAU: Well, first of all, good afternoon. Thank you, Prime Minister Albanese, for hosting this press conference, and most importantly, putting a spotlight on the Pacific. I think one of the challenges, and I've been at COPs since Glasgow, and I said at that COP, you might as well bomb us. And I said that because it seems like you go to COP, and very little happens, and it is a painful process to go through to watch your island drown. To watch your farms being inundated with salt. Your roofs getting blown off from the next typhoon. This is the reality that we live in. So we keep on going to the COPs. We keep on talking about climate finance and how difficult it is for us to get that climate finance that we need, and finally we have traction. RPACA is a great example of it, and we were celebrating that yesterday. The $1 billion that's been released to the Pacific, but we went even further. The Pacific leaders got together and said, “We need a Pacific-owned, Pacific-run facility to really get finance to the very last mile, the people that need it most, and it can't be any more loans.” You know, it doesn't make any sense for me. You know, there are island nations to be in a canoe and get run over by a massive ship, and then that ship owner telling you, “Hey, we'll give you a loan to help repair your ship, or maybe we'll give you a loan to take the person that got injured in the hospital.” It shouldn't work that way. It should be about us working together to meet the challenges that we have. And this is what this fund is all about. The Pacific Islands are also part of the contribution to this fund. It's not just the big emitters. It's also the Pacific Islands. So the Pacific Islands, at this point in time, have put together, including Australia and New Zealand, 100 million. At this COP, as of today, we're at 200 million with our other partners. We need to get to 500 million and can make this fund fully operational and delivering the grants to those communities that need it most. So I hope that you get that message out there that the time to act is now. This is an implementation COP, and that's what we expect. We expect people to commit to building resilience throughout the Pacific, the people that have suffered the most from the impacts of climate change.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Thank you Mr President. We're joined by the Fijian Climate Minister as well, who was also one of the chairs of the Pre-COP conference.
JOURNALIST: The financing deal is great in terms of dealing with the effects of climate change, but there seems to be a very big disconnect between the sort of language that's being spoken of here about the catastrophic nature of climate change and this central measure that you're putting forward. The electrification of as I understand it is basically talking about reducing global warming by 0.3 degrees, and that's if all of it is with clean energy. Why isn’t it possible, given the pushback we're seeing here, to be having a conversation about fossil fuels as well?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, there of course will be broad conversations about the full range of issues impacting climate change here, but electrification and the commitment of 35 by 2035 is a significant advance, and it's part of what has to happen as a suite of measures. You can't solve the challenge of climate change with just a single idea or a single measure. It requires whole of governments, private sector, it requires community to back that support as it goes forward as well.
MINISTER BOWEN: The electrification agenda, obviously, again, I stress, there's many hours of negotiations ahead, but is very important. We have no chance of 1.5 without this electrification agenda. No chance. Currently, we're about 23 per cent electricity in the world's energy system. The rest is fossil fuels. Transferring some of that to electricity is the unfinished piece of business when it comes to keeping 1.5 alive. We've been making very slow progress, about 0.3 per cent a year. That's got to increase four-fold. So this is an ambitious agenda, and both in the action agenda and the negotiations, without getting into the finer details of how COP works, it's got a lot of momentum. There's a lot of countries we're talking to about it, but we've got a long way to go. But really, when you consider only 23 per cent of the world's energy is electricity, the rest is fossil fuels. It is part of the fossil fuel conversation.
JOURNALIST: It is getting to 30 per cent anyway.
MINISTER BOWEN: Well, as I said, it requires a four-fold increase in progress, Laura. That doesn't happen without a big effort and global cooperation.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, today Greta Thunberg said that Australia was moving in a snail’s pace on emissions reduction. What's your response to that criticism?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, I haven't seen it, but she's entitled to her views. What we are doing is putting forward practical plans to achieve a considerable decrease. Our target, of course, is 43 per cent reduction by 2030, and we are making substantial progress. Last December quarter was the first time that renewables made up a majority of our energy mix.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the question of financing, yesterday the UN Secretary General suggested governments must begin further taxing fossil fuel companies to pay for climate management. Is he right? And if he's not right, why not?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, nation states will take what is in their interests, and one size doesn't fit all. We have in Australia the PRRT, which we changed in our first term of government. That's about over a period of time ramping up as the payments which are made for exploration repaid, if you like, to the companies making that investment, we will continue to work constructively. But we know that the amount of taxes paid by fossil fuel companies produces considerable revenue for Australia, which is one of the things that helps to fund our schools and our hospitals and other things.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there's been some criticism that in your speech yesterday you didn't actually use the phrase fossil fuels. Why did you not use that term in your speech?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: You can pick out any number of things that weren't in what was a short speech. I gave a speech which was appropriate, which was concentrating on the impact, particularly on the Pacific, talking about the impact of rising sea levels on Tuvalu, and my speech was well received by my Pacific friends here.
JOURNALIST: There's been a lot of domestic commentary about the cost of this COP, both in general as well as here at the conference, things like the coffee cart, the number of people sent. Could you perhaps outline why that expense is justified in your view, and also perhaps from the President explaining how you think that expense on Australia’s behalf has been?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: The issue of climate change is an issue of protecting our environment, and when I say our environment, I mean the global environment. It's also about Australia's national interest. We have a national security interest as well in engaging in climate change debate. You wouldn't have seen previously a few years ago, you wouldn't have always seen Pacific leaders standing with Australia with one voice, speaking about the Pacific family, working together in such a cooperative way. I'm really proud of what we have done with the agreements that we've reached with the Pacific across the full range of issues: economic support, development aid, as well as action on climate change, as well as national security interests, that is very much in Australia's national interests.
PRESIDENT WHIPPS: Well, I think what's most important is that commitment that the Australian government, really the Australian people have made to help raise the ambition when it comes to climate. We need all the support that we can get. We need all the voices that we can get, and Australia's voice as a big ocean state and a big continent is so critical in getting that message across the line. You know, by ourselves as small islands, sometimes we are not heard. But at the end of the day, I think what's most important to all of us, and I use this as my compass, and how many of you here have children? We all are in this because of our children, we love our children, and we want a future for them that gives them hope, that gives them the opportunity to enjoy really what this earth has given us. And that and sometimes it may cost us a little, but I believe every dollar spent is making a difference for the future of our children. So I like to use this symbol, and it's a symbol of love. But this is Australia working with the Pacific, and we are stronger together. And that's why we're here, standing by Australia, because together we can make a difference for our children.
MINISTER BOWEN: I'm just gonna add to that if that's okay, just a few brief comments. I read some of the commentary and indeed some of the Liberal Party statements, I wasn't going to be partisan, but given that I've been invited to, you'd think that this is the first time Australia sent a delegation to a COP. Australia's had delegations at every COP since Rio 30 years ago, sometimes led by a Prime Minister, usually led by a Minister, but always a large Australian delegation. That's appropriate. Every single government delegation has been appropriate because you're representing Australia on the stage. The difference is this time here, we are helping steer the negotiations, so we're having more influence. The Prime Minister and I think that's a good thing to have Australia more influential in the world. Angus Taylor thinks it's a good thing to have Australia less influential. That's the difference. Just on our presence here, as I said, Australia's had delegations at every COP, but we haven't had a pavilion at every COP. That only started, and I give him credit, when Angus Taylor took that decision to open a pavilion at a COP. I give him due credit for that. It was the right decision, an approach I have continued. It was also Mr Taylor's decision to open free coffee, which I also endorse and congratulate him for. In fact, he said, "Good coffee, good company, but most important thing is Aussie companies doing amazing things. That's what I like most of all.” And he said he saw other pavilions serving free coffee, and he said, we have worked very hard, and “I want to ramp it up in the future,” in relation to coffee. Good call by Angus. The right call because it's great public diplomacy. It is lifting Australia's presence. People are coming to the Australian pavilion and staying for seminars and hearing about their investment opportunities in Australia. That's why we're here. That's why the AIG is coming with a big Australian investment mission to encourage using the COP to support Australian jobs and Australian investment, and that's why the PM and I are here as well, as well as working with our Pacific family and to see change. Here we are with our Pacific family. It wasn't that long ago a former Prime Minister of Fiji called for Australia to be expelled from the PIF because of Australia's climate policies. This Prime Minister's turned that around.