Strong climate targets make strong friendships, Fiji tells Australia

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has called on Australia to increase its emissions reductions goals after a United Nations report showing that despite new commitments the world is still on track for devastating global warming.

“We’ll be watching major players like the US, China, and Australia with bated breath,” Mr Bainimarama told the Herald and The Age.

Low-lying countries such as Kiribati are threatened by climate change. Credit:New York Times

“Strong commitments will make strong friendships among climate-vulnerable Pacific Islanders … To anyone who may think that Australia is too small to make a real difference, there are a number of small island states in your backyard that beg to differ,” he said, adding that renewed climate ambition by the US was an opportunity to increase global action.

He said that over the past four years, the United States’ climate apathy had been contagious and had stalled global climate momentum.

“Now we have a chance to reset. This time, Australia has the opportunity to get out ahead and lead from the front with a firm, tangible commitment to achieve net-zero by 2050 and not one day later.”

Mr Bainimarama’s comments come as speculation increases that the US will soon announce a dramatic increase to its reduction target of 26-28 per cent by 2025 from a 2005 baseline. Such a move may increase pressure on Australia to cut its own slightly weaker goal, a reduction of 26-28 per cent by 2030.

Frank Bainimarama visits Canberra in 2019.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

It is thought the US will make an announcement on its target in the days before the April 22 climate summit called by President Joe Biden.

Bill Hare, the Australian climate scientist and chief executive of Climate Analytics – a think tank with global reach, said he is aware of discussions within the Biden administration suggesting the US may announce a reduction of 45 per cent or more.

“There is no doubt that this will increase pressure on Australia,” said Professor Hare, who was a lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paper that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

He said when Australia first set its 26-28 per cent target it had pegged it to the comparatively low US target. With US ambition leaping ahead, Australia will be further isolated on the world stage, he said.

In January in its first update in five years to the so-called nationally determined contribution (NDC), the Australian government defended its decision to stick to the target as an “ambitious, fair and responsible” effort to keep global average temperature rises to below 2 degrees.

Richie Merzian, a former Australian diplomat and climate negotiator, said a spate of recent announcements suggested the US and Britain were taking a co-ordinated approach in targeting Australia and a select group of other large emitters.

He cited Boris Johnson’s decision to invite Australia, South Korea and India to upcoming G7 talks in Cornwall in June, as well as the recent comments by John Kerry, the former US Secretary of State appointed by President Biden to lead US climate efforts, that the US and Australia had “differences” over climate.

“Australia has had some differences with us, we’ve not been able to get on the same page completely,” said Mr Kerry last weekend. “That was one of the problems in Madrid as you recall, together with Brazil.”

Mr Merzian, now director of the climate and energy program at the Australia Institute, said that it was clear that the US and the UK “were singing from the same song sheet” during a UN Security Council meeting that addressed climate change last week.

On Friday, a spokesman for Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said in response to the new UN report that Australia was reducing emissions faster than many other comparable countries.

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