Shorter America This Week: Betting on death; Racist raids; Everything is fine
In 'Shorter America', Dr Emma Shortis keeps you up-to-date on the United States with news and analysis that you can trust.
The government has promised to use its COP31 presidency to elevate the priorities of our Pacific neighbours. This is a serious test for our government because it has a history of claiming to support Pacific interests on climate but then undermining them when push comes to shove.
Fri 4 Sep 2026 14.53 AEST
Photo: Anthony Albanese and Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen at a press conference during the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Koror, Palau, Tuesday, September 1, 2026. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
When did Russia win the war in Ukraine? Or when did Ukraine lose its war with Russia — not quite the same thing. Or when did President Trump hand Ukraine — or at least the valuable Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine — to President Putin? Again, not quite the same thing.
In 'Shorter America', Dr Emma Shortis keeps you up-to-date on the United States with news and analysis that you can trust.
Australia cannot control how much coal other countries burn. But through our laws governing mining approvals and fossil fuel development, Australian governments — and the voters that elect them — definitely have a say in how much coal we dig up and export. The High Court decision on the Mount Pleasant coal mine in NSW has brought the limits of that argument into sharp focus.
On Wednesday, 14 October, three speeches were given in Canberra at three different venues. The President of Palau spoke at the Australian National University. Tuvalu’s Minister for Climate Change and Environment, Maina Talia, spoke at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) conference. Australia’s Minister for Resources, Madeleine King, spoke at the National Press Club. Together, they highlighted the gap between what the Pacific is telling us, and what Australia is saying back.
We will hear a lot about Australia’s relationship with the Pacific over the next few months. This week, our leaders have attended the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau. Then next month, we’re leading climate talks in Fiji – the warm-up event for the year’s main climate conference (COP31) in November, where Australia will be president of negotiations.
The government has promised to use its presidency to elevate the priorities of our Pacific neighbours. This is a serious test for our government because it has a history of claiming to support Pacific interests on climate but then undermining them when push comes to shove. We are the kind of neighbour who delivers fresh cookies to your door while throwing our rubbish into your back garden. There is an obvious reason for these double standards: Australia allows its climate priorities to be dictated by fossil fuel interests.
At the 2021 UN climate conference in Glasgow, Australia’s then-Energy Minister Angus Taylor stood alongside the CEO of oil and gas giant Santos to promote government investment in the unproven technology of carbon capture and storage. Pacific leaders, youth voices and civil society swiftly united to condemn this government-sponsored greenwashing. In doing so, they highlighted the central problem plaguing UN climate negotiations: fossil fuel interests are not only invited to attend; they are allowed to shape the talks from the inside.
Representatives from the world’s largest coal, gas and oil companies are free to wander both the green (public) zones and blue (official) zones, speaking to global leaders as they go. It is an absurd image.
Tobacco lobbyists are not invited to global health negotiations for an obvious reason: their product is antithetical to the purpose of the talks. Indeed, after the World Health Organisation banned the tobacco industry from conferences, countries were able to negotiate one of the most successful public health treaties in history: the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. But the same principle does not apply to climate negotiations. The people profiting from the products causing the climate crisis are given priority access, making it no wonder climate COPs often fail to achieve results.
Research by Transparency International, based on interviews with COP insiders, shows high-polluting industries have hamstrung negotiations since the beginning. They have promoted consensus-based decision making, which allows just a single country to obstruct progress, and advocated for voluntary rather than binding commitments.
Industry-linked advisers even form part of official government delegations, and conflicts of interest are rife. The COP president in 2023 was the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Predictably, the company used the conference to pursue USD$100 billion in fossil fuels deals.
These transparency and integrity failures have become worse since I attended my first climate conference (COP6) in 2000. All attendees – governments, media, NGOs – need formal badges to participate, but last year at COP30 in Brazil, over half of all delegates did not fully disclose who they were representing. Transparency International found one in every 25 participants was a fossil fuel lobbyist. These industry representatives outnumbered every country delegation except the Brazilian hosts. Unsurprisingly, countries were unable to even mention the words ‘fossil fuels’ in the final document.
Quality research, analysis, explainers and factchecks from experts you can trust.
The key problem is the UN climate process has no rules preventing industry capture. The rules governing COPs do not even define ‘conflict of interest’. Nor do they have participation guidelines for industry representatives. Fossil fuel lobbyists are not breaking the rules when they sit on national negotiating teams and block progress from the inside.
This year’s COP is co-hosted with Türkiye, and Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, is President of Negotiations. His position is important. Presidents have significant influence over the negotiating process, and Australia has repeatedly pledged to amplify Pacific Island voices. We have told our Pacific neighbours they are family, that their perspectives matter, and that Australia is their trusted partner on climate action. But amplifying Pacific voices is impossible so long as fossil fuel lobbyists are given a seat at the table.
Earlier this year, Pacific Island nations united in a landmark declaration – the Tassiriki Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific – which demanded ‘stronger integrity, including a recognition of the need to safeguard global climate governance from undue influence of fossil fuel interests’. It called for a formal conflict of interest definition and robust transparency rules at COPs. Australia’s co-presidency offers a rare opportunity to pursue these changes.
First, we can adopt basic integrity measures: disclosing the full list of delegates and their affiliations, requiring attendees to adhere to a conflict-of-interest policy, and publishing a register of all meetings. We can also refuse partnerships, consultancies, or sponsorships with high-polluting industries.
Second, and more ambitiously, Australia can use its agenda-setting power to call for reform of the UN climate negotiating system. The COP31 presidency can’t unilaterally change the rules, but it can make their reform a centrepiece of negotiations. Australia can demand countries address the structural flaws allowing fossil fuel interests to hijack climate talks year after year, decade after decade.
Australia’s climate credentials are already compromised. We remain one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters, approving new and expanded coal and gas projects even as we claim global climate leadership. But COP31 does not need to be another Glasgow, Abu Dhabi or Belém. Australia’s co-presidency is a chance to prove we can do better: by prioritising integrity, confronting vested interests and giving Pacific voices meaningful power in the process. Doing so would be climate leadership not just in words, but in practice, and would show our Pacific neighbours we’ve got their back.
Nicolette Boele is the independent member for Bradfield and has decades of experience working in climate, finance and policy. Prior to entering Federal Parliament she held executive roles in organisations such as the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia, the Investor Group on Climate Change, and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
