Australia's Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Alex Hawke, says his country is a good international player and is committed to addressing climate change.
Australia's Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Alex Hawke Photo: Liberal Party
Last week a number of Pacific nations signed a declaration calling for greater action against what they called a "Climate Crisis" and an end to coal mining.
Palau's President Tommy Remengesau Junior also made a plea for Australia to take further climate action and the environmental NGO Greenpeace said the country should step aside from engaging in the region, if it wasn't going to change its policies around coal and energy.
Under the Paris Agreement, Australia is committed to cutting emissions per capita by 50 percent by 2030 and Mr Hawke, who is in Vanuatu, told Buzz FM, Australia was abiding by this.
"We believe we will meet our Paris targets and we are very firm about that. Australia always meets its international targets," Mr Hawke said.
"We are a good international player, not every international country does meet its targets. Some of them fail very badly or don't take the environment seriously.
"We do take the environment seriously and we do believe that we have to listen very carefully on climate change [and] Pacific needs."
Last week's Pacific declaration also asked Australia to "refrain from using carry-over credits as an abatement for the additional Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets," a system controversially used the government.
But Mr Hawke also hinted that his government would be ramping up support for countries struggling to deal with climate change.
He said Australia was looking forward to engaging on a multilateral level with Pacific nations at next week's Forum meeting.
Mr Hawke said the meeting in Tuvalu was an opportunity for Australia to elaborate on what it was doing around climate change and what it would be doing in the future.
"Pacific island countries feel the impacts of climate change more than other countries do and the issues are real, the mitigation issues are real, the adaptation issues are real, and Australia very much wants to partner and work on those issues," he said.
"I think you will see a lot more intent in that regard, especially through our Infrastructure Financing Facility, focussed on mitigation and adaptation projects."
Mr Hawke said multilateral meetings, like the Pacific Forum, were good for regional security.