Albanese pleads for the Pacific at COP31 and never says “fossil fuels”, as Guterres says they must go the way of the dinosaurs

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has used the opening of the leaders’ segment of the COP31 climate summit to ask the world not to forget the Pacific, in a speech that climate groups and crossbench politicians say ducked the biggest question at the talks.

Speaking at the two-day World Leaders Climate Action Summit in Antalya, Türkiye, on Wednesday local time (overnight Australian time), Albanese told leaders Australia had taken on its role at the conference to speak for those most exposed to climate change.

“We sought this role because we wanted to speak for the people of the world who need urgent action,” he said. “I plead with you to join our campaign to help the nations of the Pacific.”

What did Albanese actually ask for?

His central request was support for the Pacific Resilience Facility, a fund launched in 2025 and designed to raise US$500 million for Pacific countries to prepare for and recover from climate disasters. He recalled meeting a 13-year-old girl in Tuvalu last month who told him the Pacific was asking for help and partnership, not pity.

He also pointed to Australia’s take-up of rooftop solar and household batteries, called for more investment in clean energy and adaptation, and argued that clean, reliable and affordable energy was within reach. The words “fossil fuels” did not appear in the speech.

Why are critics so focused on two words?

Because the rest of the summit is focused on them. The main fight in Antalya is how fast countries should move away from coal, oil and gas, after last year’s COP30 in Brazil ended without agreement on a fossil fuel road map.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, at his last COP in the job, told leaders the world was moving far too slowly and that fossil fuels had to “go the way of the dinosaurs”. “The dinosaurs did not have a lobby. Fossil fuels do,” he said. He called for credible national plans to transition away from fossil fuels, no new coal, oil or gas infrastructure, and a tax on fossil fuel companies’ windfall profits to pay for climate recovery in vulnerable countries.

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said the discovery of new fossil fuel resources was “not something to celebrate”.

Senator David Pocock said the Prime Minister had “not once mentioned fossil fuels”, noting the government’s 38 approvals of new or extended fossil fuel projects. Adam Bandt, now chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said it was “crunch time” and that Australia could not keep dodging the issue. Nicki Hutley of the Climate Council compared building renewables while approving new coal and gas to “filling the bath with the plug pulled out”. Independent MP Nicolette Boele, who paid her own way to the summit, said climate leadership had to be earned at home.

Why does Australia’s role make this harder?

Australia lost its bid to host COP31 in Adelaide, but under the deal struck with Türkiye it runs the negotiations while Türkiye hosts. That gives Canberra unusual influence over the final text, and unusual exposure: any deal on fossil fuels, or failure to reach one, will carry Australia’s name.

It also sharpens the contrast the Pacific has been drawing for years: money to cope with rising seas is welcome, but Pacific leaders such as President Heine say the bigger help would be fewer new coal and gas projects in the first place.

What else is on the table?

Türkiye is pushing a “35 by 35” pledge to lift electricity’s share of world energy use to 35 per cent by 2035, which Australia supports, though critics note it does not require the power to be clean. Negotiators are also working on climate finance and adaptation.