The Pacific Island Forum is over. That means ScoMo can’t wear Hawaiian shirts anymore and can continue to not give half a shit about climate change.
It turns out he gives so little amount of shits that he actually made the Prime Minister of Tonga cry. Yep. He cried real tears because Australia is so bad at caring about climate change.
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Leaders of nations including New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and of course Australia met to discuss climate change.
The Pacific Island Forum was held in the tiny nation of Tuvalu, where the effects of climate change are devastating because the nation is a mere 2m above sea level. Tuvalu is being branded as the “poster child of climate change”.
“Rising seas threaten to drown this island nation — a sign of what’s in store for us all,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres tweeted on a recent visit to the nation.
However, the nations failed to come to an agreement on the Tuvalu Declaration at the summit. The Smaller Island States (SIS) could agree, probably because they’re copping the impacts of a rising sea level. However, the larger nations including Australia and New Zealand had reservations.
“The Prime Minister of Tonga actually cried, in the retreat, did you know that?” The Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga said. “The leader of Tonga actually shed tears in front of the leaders, because of the passion referring to the presentation from the two young warriors of climate change the other day.”
It appears the leaders of the SIS are fed up with countries like Australia not taking climate change seriously. It’s probably because they’re the ones who are legitimately about to be drowned by it.
“We expressed very strongly during our exchange, between me and Scott (Morrison), I said: ‘You are concerned about saving your economy in Australia … I am concerned about saving my people in Tuvalu’,” he said.
A defeated looking Prime Minister Sopaga said that the smaller island nations had “tried [their] best” to resolve the issues at the meeting.
Aussie PM Scott Morrison, who legitimately looks like we’ve sent our kooky uncle Steve to the summit, reckons we’re already doing our bit for climate change.
“All the commitments I should stress, that have been made here by Australia, are consistent with the commitments that we have given and Australian government policy, in relation particularly to our commitments to the 2030 Paris emissions reduction targets,” he said.
ScoMo pointed out that we’re the biggest financial contributor to the Pacific’s development and protection, donating $1.4 billion annually. However it appears the rest of the Pacific Island Forum want to see proactive action from Australia. They’re calling for us to actually reduce our emissions, rather than just writing a fat cheque.
“On emissions reduction and dealing with your own climate, Australia is out there, they’re not with us,” Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said. “Pretty much on everything else we’re on the same team, in terms of mitigation, adaptation, making sure there’s resourcing for all this, it’s only in terms of domestic emissions strategy that Australia is way out.”
But hey, who cares if we’re not the ones underwater, right? I’m sure that $1.4 billion will build a really nice boat for everyone when the island nations are underwater.
