Photo: Lynn Grieveson. Retrieved from newsroom.co.nz
Pacific leaders are gathering in the Cook Islands for the annual Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Retreat.
Climate change, always a high priority for Pacific countries, will be the main theme of the gathering, just weeks before the global community descends on Dubai for the major COP28 climate summit.
Six island nations that endorsed the Port Vila Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific earlier this year – Tonga, Fiji, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu – are likely to push for wider adoption of the statement.
That statement asks the forum to issue a declaration supporting a ban on fossil fuels in the region, and the negotiation of a global treaty for non-proliferation of fossil fuels. It pushes countries to join the Beyond Oil and Gas alliance of nations that have partly or fully halted fossil fuel exploration.
New Zealand has yet to sign on to the call, although there are aspects it supports such as advocating for the end of fossil fuel subsidies and joining the anti-exploration alliance. New Zealand is a partial member of Beyond Oil and Gas because the Labour Government banned offshore oil and gas exploration. If the incoming government reinstates that exploration, as National has pledged to do, New Zealand is likely to be kicked out of the group.
Getting precise answers out of New Zealand delegates may be difficult at the summit, however, because representatives of both the outgoing and incoming governments are attending but have limited ability to make commitments.
Carmel Sepuloni, the Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Foreign Affairs Minister with responsibility for the Pacific, were to attend the special, overnight leaders retreat where officials and other delegates are excluded. National’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee is attending the summit but not the retreat.