Climate organisation calls out PIF for not addressing root cause of climate crisis

The Pacific Islands Climate Action Network has called out the Pacific leaders for not addressing the driver of the climate crisis.

Regional coordinator Lavetangalagi Seru says the leaders who attended the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands last week failed to directly address the biggest driver behind climate change: Fossil fuels.

"The leaders have used an aspirational tone, that they 'aspire to phase out fossil fuels'," Seru says.

"That's not responding to the scale, the urgency. We had hoped the leaders, especially from the Pacific, would push harder.

"I guess there was strong push-back from fossil fuel interest countries like Australia."

Australia also signed a historic treaty with Tuvalu, a pact that Seru calls problematic and exploitative.

The Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty will give those in Tuvalu facing displacement from climate change a pathway to settle in Australia, while Australia gains veto power over Tuvalu's foreign security.

The treaty has also been criticised by Pacific academics, calling it another form of colonialism.

Seru says due to the climate crisis where sea levels rise, on top of food and water insecurity that Tuvalu residents have little choice to relocate.

"The fact that Australia has a say in security arrangements is imposing this neo-colonial power on countries like Tuvalu who's going to grab at anything to ensure that their people have a future."

Watch the full interview from 531's Facebook page below: