Australia presses Pacific finance and electrification plans as COP31 talks continue

November 14 update: Australian plans and climate-finance pressure

Australia is pressing for faster electrification and more accessible finance for Pacific countries at COP31 in Antalya, while facing demands to address coal, oil and gas more directly. The summit has not closed: in his Friday, November 13 press conference, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said substantial negotiations remained before final results expected the following week.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used his November 11 leaders' address to make the case for investment in clean technologies, electrification, oceans and finance for vulnerable countries. He described Australia as a renewable-energy leader and said its renewable generation had doubled in six years, supplied half its electricity mix and been accompanied by more than 600,000 home-battery installations in the preceding year. Those figures were claims in his address, not a new independent audit of Australia's energy system.

Albanese also cited a Tuvalu schoolgirl's plea for safe homes, schools and water systems, using the low-lying islands' exposure to sea-level rise to explain Australia's Pacific focus. He said the world's projected warming trajectory had improved from around four degrees before the Paris Agreement to around 2.6 degrees, but remained above the 1.5-degree goal. He argued that every fraction of avoided warming would matter even if that goal was temporarily exceeded.

Fossil fuels remain a dividing issue

The leaders' speech did not use the phrase fossil fuels. Asked on Friday why, Albanese said a short speech could not cover every subject and had deliberately concentrated on the effects on Pacific communities. He said broader talks would cover the full range of climate issues and defended electrification as one part of a package rather than a single solution.

Bowen argued that raising electricity's share of global energy use from about 23 per cent towards a proposed 35 per cent by 2035 was essential to keep the 1.5-degree goal within reach. He said progress needed to accelerate roughly fourfold. Critics counter that expanding electricity use does not on its own ensure that generation is clean or establish a timetable for ending fossil-fuel use. The proposed target is not a final agreed binding settlement.

Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Adam Bandt and Climate Council economist Nicki Hutley said renewable expansion needed to be matched by action on coal and gas. An open letter from 500 climate scientists and experts similarly challenged Australia's ability to lead climate negotiations while expanding fossil-fuel extraction. UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged governments to move beyond discussing a transition and organise and finance its delivery.

Asked about Guterres's call for further taxes on fossil-fuel companies, Albanese said countries would decide according to their own circumstances. He pointed to Australia's petroleum resource rent tax changes and said revenue from fossil-fuel companies helped pay for schools and hospitals. That response did not announce a new tax measure at the summit.

Pacific finance and the wider funding gap

At Friday's press conference with Pacific leaders, Albanese called for support for the Pacific Resilience Facility, a Pacific-owned financing mechanism intended to get timely assistance to communities. Bowen said small-island developing states received only 0.2 per cent of global climate finance for adaptation and argued that access must improve. He also welcomed a separate regional climate programme covering 14 countries and a Green Climate Fund regional office in Fiji.

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr said Pacific communities needed grants that reached those most exposed, rather than more loans after disasters. He described rising seas, salt-damaged farms and storm damage as everyday realities. Both Albanese and Bowen defended the cost of Australia's delegation and pavilion as work on national interests, regional security and investment, while Whipps stressed the importance of Australia standing alongside small island countries.

The wider funding debate remained unresolved on Friday. Guterres said even tripling adaptation finance would meet less than 30 per cent of needs. Existing agreements call for developed countries to lead efforts to mobilise at least US$300 billion annually by 2035 within a broader US$1.3 trillion ambition. An assessment highlighted at the summit warned of a possible US$840 billion annual shortfall on current trends. British, Norwegian and Canadian development-finance institutions announced a separate effort to mobilise US$10 billion for emerging-market climate projects by 2030.

The finance discussions also covered farming and faster disaster payouts. UN specialists said only about five per cent of climate-related development finance went to agriculture. A parametric insurance programme operating in eight Pacific countries releases payments when agreed rainfall or wind thresholds are met, rather than waiting for a lengthy damage assessment. Negotiators still need agreement on adaptation-funding measures, predictable loss-and-damage support and a political outcome addressing finance and fossil fuels. None of these discussions is evidence that the summit has already delivered a final deal.

Earlier coverage, November 9-11

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told leaders at COP31 in Antalya that the global response to climate change was too slow and called for faster action to move away from fossil fuels.

Nearly 200 countries are discussing a plan to increase electricity's share of energy use and revive efforts to reduce fossil-fuel dependence. Turkey's proposed target would lift the electricity share to 35% by 2035, but does not require all additional generation to come from clean sources.

The proposal is not an agreed binding deal. Guterres also said dependence on imported fuels exposed countries to price shocks and insecurity.