Palau's President Surangel Whipps has used a week-long visit to Canberra to argue that Pacific nations deserve to be judged by their ocean territory, not their land mass — and to press Australia and other big emitters for serious climate money ahead of COP31.
Whipps, who took over as chair of the Pacific Islands Forum after hosting the region's summit in September, spoke at the Australian National University amid criticism that the recent pre-COP — hosted jointly by Fiji and Tuvalu — had attracted few big-name leaders from outside the region. Australia had pushed for senior ministers to attend so the world could see climate impacts first-hand in the most exposed part of the planet, and the cost of the event ran into the tens of millions.
Whipps called the criticism short-sighted. Pacific states, he noted, are custodians of nearly 20 percent of the Earth's surface — an area bigger than Russia, China, the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia and India combined. His pitch: stop calling them small island states and start calling them 'big ocean states'. Tuvalu's climate minister Maina Talia, also in Australia, said more than 30 ministers had attended the pre-COP and the outcome was positive, though he said he was 'alarmed' by Australia's continued coal and gas expansion. His country, the lowest-lying on Earth, needs warming held to 1.5 degrees 'for us to stay in our own countries'.
The Pacific has four priorities for COP31, which opens in Turkey on 9 November: keeping 1.5 degrees within reach, speeding up the renewables transition, unlocking climate finance, and winning recognition for ocean stewardship — the last tied to a proposed 'Antalya Ocean Declaration' that host nations Australia and Turkey are working to build support for. A key test will be the Pacific Resilience Facility, the region's own climate finance vehicle for renewables, adaptation and disaster mitigation. Pledges at pre-COP reached only half of its initial US$500 million target. 'This is the moment to invest,' Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said in Fiji. 'Your investment buys us time.'
Why should a traveller care? Because the future of Pacific holidays — from Palau's dive sites to Tuvalu's lagoons — depends directly on these negotiations. Rising seas and warming water are already reshaping the region's coastlines and reefs, and the Pacific's leaders are effectively negotiating on behalf of destinations millions of people love to visit. The COP31 outcome will tell you a lot about what these islands will look like in a few decades.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the region: PNG's parliament will debate the Bougainville referendum results on 20-21 October, needing 89 of 118 votes to ratify; Fiji's coalition partner NFP is demanding longer public consultation on constitutional reform; and Tonga is bracing for a dry El Niño summer, with its former agriculture minister calling for soil-moisture-based drought monitoring after livestock losses in Ha'apai.
