Australia should back Pacific-led electrification with affordable finance, local skills and measurable benefits. But clean-energy partnerships cannot substitute for a credible plan to move away from coal, oil and gas. True friendship means listening to our neighbours, acting on shared responsibilities and matching clean-energy partnerships with a credible transition away from fossil fuels. This is a big opportunity to show a real partnership in the Transition.
Fri 23 Oct 2026 01.00 AEDT
Photo: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Since Labor was elected in mid 2022, domestic emissions have fallen, on average, by about 0.6 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each quarter. But exported emissions have risen, on average, by about 2.5 megatonnes.
Imagine a conference on stopping smoking, sponsored by tobacco companies, hosted by tobacco exporters and crowded with tobacco lobbyists. Then imagine being told it is the world’s best hope for getting off the ciggies. That is the UN climate process as it rolls out every year.
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Pacific leaders are not waiting for Australia to explain the energy transition.
They are asking whether we will act alongside them.
Following the Pre-COP meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu, Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr offered a practical test: “Projects prepared. Finance committed. Systems commissioned. Diesel displaced. Benefits reaching communities.” (remarks at his Canberra address on 14 October via Louise Morris in The Point).
That is a better starting point than another diplomatic declaration.
The same day, Tuvalu’s climate minister Maina Talia called for decisive action against fossil-fuel dependence. At the National Press Club, Australia’s Resources Minister Madeleine King said “we must keep developing gas for export for our regional partners” and continue exporting coal and gas “while our export markets still need them”.
The latest debate over gas reservation sharpens the distinction. Securing affordable supply during the transition is not the same as planning to reduce dependence. A credible policy must do both: protect consumers now while making efficient electric alternatives easier to adopt.
These positions expose a contradiction. Australia cannot claim solidarity with Pacific neighbours while making decisions that prolong the fossil-fuel dependence threatening their futures.
Talia describes this responsibility through the Tuvaluan concept of tuākoi: neighbourliness grounded in sharing, reciprocity and care. Australia’s task is not to prescribe the Pacific’s pathway, but to support it and accept responsibility for its own decisions.
At Pre-COP, ministers discussed a regional roadmap away from fossil fuels, connecting renewable energy, economic security and changing energy trade – a path we have already described for Australia as the most economically sensible path. Pacific leaders’ agenda addresses fossil-fuel supply as well as demand – not renewable electricity deployment alone.
Pacific civil society’s demands go further: end new extraction, phase out existing production and subsidies, and reject measures that endorse continuing pollution.
A practical development alongside Pre-COP was the intention to develop a Pacific regional roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. It builds on Pacific leaders’ approval of a Renewable Energy Commissioner and their vision for a 100% renewable-energy future. Australia should support this Pacific-led process with finance, technical capability and a credible transition plan of its own.
Australia should engage seriously with the agreed roadmap.
The proposed COP31 “35 by 35” goal would lift electricity to 35% of global final energy consumption by 2035. It gives electrification welcome prominence, but cannot establish whether communities receive cleaner, cheaper or more reliable services.
Electrification is not a one-for-one fuel swap. Electric vehicles waste less energy than combustion engines. Heat pumps provide more heating per unit of electricity than resistance heaters. Efficient motors and controls reduce the electricity needed for pumping and machinery.
Electricity consumed therefore does not equal useful services delivered. An inefficient appliance can contribute more to a consumption-share target than an efficient one doing the same job. Electrification can significantly reduce fossil fuels and the cost savings can enable a more just outcome. Electricity consumed is not the same as useful services delivered. An inefficient appliance can contribute more to a consumption-share target than an efficient one doing the same job. Electrification policy should therefore reward lower fossil-fuel use, better services and lower costs—not electricity consumption for its own sake. Importantly, 2026 brings the fastest energy transition in history – this opportunity should be embraced.
We propose Electrified Economy Outcomes: a public dashboard tracking fossil fuels displaced, emissions reduced, affordable and reliable services, efficient equipment, local capability, and benefits reaching lower-income and remote communities on a path of energy sovereignty.
Quality research, analysis, explainers and factchecks from experts you can trust.
Governments should also report whether investment and approvals reduce or extend fossil-fuel dependence. Clean-energy deployment must displace fossil fuels, not simply grow alongside them.
This would be embracing the transition in a way that business, civil society and governments coming to COP31 would recognise as a partnership.
This week’s Global Citizen NOW summit in Perth offered another test of delivery. Its declaration called for Pacific nations to be recognised as equal partners. A proposed climate-investment pipeline developed with 14 Pacific countries could mobilise US$1 billion, including US$250 million in Green Climate Fund grants, subject to Board approval. The opportunity is welcome; the measure remains finance delivered and benefits reaching communities.
Australia’s role as COP31 President of Negotiations creates an opportunity to work with Pacific countries as equal partners, bringing different resources and responsibilities to a shared task.
Marshall Islands representative Jess Gasper Jr explained at Pre-COP that fossil-fuel prices are set beyond island shores, while their impacts fall directly on island communities. This is the reality of the developing world everywhere.
Locally generated renewable electricity, storage and efficient equipment offer greater energy sovereignty: control over essential services and less exposure to imported-fuel shocks. It is the key to survival and to a liveable economic future.
Supporting the proposed Pacific roadmap would demonstrate what partnership means: different national circumstances and responsibilities, but a shared direction away from fossil-fuel dependence. That means financing locally chosen projects, training and retaining local technicians, supporting maintenance over the full life of equipment, and publishing progress on diesel displaced, costs reduced and reliability improved.
The same principles should guide our domestic transition: affordable electric transport and practical pathways beyond diesel for regional agriculture, freight, mining and industry – the next big agenda for us.
For fossil-fuel regions, friendship abroad must be matched by fairness at home. Workers and communities need replacement industries, infrastructure, training and investment before employment disappears.
We advocate a time-bound Australian fossil-fuel transition roadmap: stop approving new coal and gas projects, progressively redirect fossil-fuel support towards alternatives, and plan the export transition with workers, communities and trading partners.
Speaking in Canberra on 14 October, Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr offered a practical test for COP31: Projects prepared. Finance committed. Systems commissioned. Diesel displaced. Benefits reaching communities. Whipps explicitly excluded switching fossil fuels off overnight.
Australia lives in this neighbourhood and belongs to this neighbourhood. We should not stand above it, simply offering assistance while discounting the evidence-based warnings.
True friends act on what they know and hear.
Australia should back Pacific-led electrification with affordable finance, local skills and measurable benefits. But clean-energy partnerships cannot substitute for a credible transition away from coal, oil and gas.
True partnership means listening to our neighbours, sharing responsibility and delivering.
Professor Ray Wills, Managing Director, Future Smart Strategies; Adjunct Professor, The University of Western Australia
Professor Peter Newman AO, John Curtin Distinguished Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University; advisor-at-large, Future Smart Strategies
