Write to Minister Bowen: Stand with the Pacific!

We’re in a critical moment for climate justice.

From Vanuatu to Tuvalu, Pacific women are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Women are facing climate disaster after climate disaster, but they don't have the funding to rebuild and recover.

At the UN climate change conference (COP29) in November, countries are set to agree a new global ‘climate finance’ target to address this issue. But we need countries to call for a bold target – otherwise this goal could fall short of the USD 1 trillion that’s needed.

Going forward, the question isn’t ...

We’re in a critical moment for climate justice.

From Vanuatu to Tuvalu, Pacific women are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Women are facing climate disaster after climate disaster, but they don't have the funding to rebuild and recover.

At the UN climate change conference (COP29) in November, countries are set to agree a new global ‘climate finance’ target to address this issue. But we need countries to call for a bold target – otherwise this goal could fall short of the USD 1 trillion that’s needed.

Going forward, the question isn’t whether countries will have to pay for the costs of climate change – the question is which countries will foot the bill.

Our report – Seizing the Moment: A new climate finance goal that delivers for the Pacific – shows that Australia can, and must, play a key role in ensuring these global negotiations are a success.

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Write to Minister Bowen: Deliver climate finance that meets the needs of the Pacific!

We are calling on the Government to step up its climate leadership.

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Dear Minister Bowen,

I am calling on you to seize this moment and take a stand for the Pacific – by championing an ambitious new climate finance goal at COP29, and committing to contribute Australia’s fair share.

At the Pacific Islands Forum this August, UN Secretary General António Guterres presented some of the latest climate science data. The average rate of sea level rise has more than doubled since the 1990s – and in many parts of the Pacific it’s been much worse.

Rising sea levels are just one example of the worsening impacts of the climate crisis that are hitting Pacific communities first, and hardest. Climate change is changing the landscape across the Pacific. Traditional plants are becoming extinct. Food insecurity is growing. Women are facing greater unpaid care burdens. Pacific communities are losing their culture, ways of life and land.

Pacific communities and other low-income countries urgently need funding so they can adapt to climate change, rebuild and recover from climate disasters and transition their economies away from fossil fuels. Yet, while the costs of the climate crises are escalating, climate finance from Australia and other wealthy countries continues to fall short.

When Cyclone Winston hit Fiji in in 2016, the losses and damages reached USD 1.4 billion – 30 per cent of Fiji’s annual GDP. The international community provided USD 188 million in the wake of the disaster, leaving the government and citizens of Fiji to cover over 85 per cent of recovery costs.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the Pacific needs USD 1 billion in adaptation finance per year, well above the average annual funding of USD 550 million that was provided to the region for adaptation and mitigation responses between 2014 and 2019.

With the new global climate finance goal at the top of the agenda at COP29, Australia must back the growing calls for a minimum USD 1 trillion goal, and must commit to doing our fair share to achieve it. An ambitious goal will enable communities to accelerate climate action in response to worsening climate impacts. If the goal falls short, the impacts will be measured in homes destroyed, livelihoods lost and rising insecurity.

Going forward, the question isn’t whether countries will have to pay for the costs of climate change – the question is which countries will foot the bill.

Australia can and must play a critical leadership role in the climate finance negotiations and advocate for an ambitious climate finance goal that ensures women and their communities across the Pacific – and the world – can avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

Mobilising this finance is well within our grasp, it’s just a matter of priorities: while Australia has committed $3b in climate finance from 2020-2025, we’re currently planning to spend $54b on fossil fuel subsidies over the next four years.

If we don’t step up, it’s Pacific communities that will pay the price.

Minister, as you prepare for COP29, I call on you to:

- Support an ambitious climate finance goal of least USD 1 trillion in grant or grant equivalent finance, which includes funding for loss and damage alongside mitigation and adaptation 
- Commit to Australia contributing its fair share in climate finance to achieve this goal; and 
- Urgently contribute to the global Loss and Damage Fund.

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