GLOBAL: The world climate leaders’ summit you didn’t hear about

ANALYSIS: By Rod Campbell
AUCKLAND (Asia Pacific Report/The Australia Institute/Pacific Media Watch): As much of the world watched the G20 last week, another leaders’ summit was on in Fiji.

Fiji will chair the next UN climate conference in November. Pacific leaders gathered in Suva to discuss how they can use this opportunity to call for serious climate action.

This meeting did not attract Australia or New Zealand’s big name journalists or even many Australians at all.

Had they been there at the COP23 Climate Action Pacific Partnership (CAPP) talks, Australians might have been surprised at what was and wasn’t talked about in Suva.

There was much discussion on how the Pacific can reduce its own (globally miniscule) emissions. Plenty was also said about how islanders can prepare for climate change with better farming techniques.

On the other hand, almost nothing was said about how the Pacific can get the rest of the world to do something meaningful on climate.

This is not an accident.

Rod Campbell is the research director at The Australia Institute.

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