• Tweeter

  • republish

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a press conference in Singapore on August 13, 2019. Wallace Woon / Pool via REUTERS

The 50th edition of the Pacific Islands Forum ended Friday (August 16th) with a strong disagreement on the means to fight against climate change. The negotiations are over, the languages ​​are loosening and the critics are firing. The atmosphere is now very tense between the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his counterparts of the Pacific islands threatened by the rising waters.

" You are concerned about saving the economy in Australia. I am concerned about saving the people of Tuvalu, "said Enele Sopoaga, the Tuvaluan prime minister for his Australian counterpart.

After 12 hours of strained bargaining, Scott Morrison has indeed refused to comply with binding targets on limiting the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees, the reduction of greenhouse gases or the limitation of coal as a source of energy.

Morrison does not want to let go of the coal industry

Even if Australia had wanted to make a good impression by proposing at the beginning of the week a financial support of 500 million Australian dollars to support the renewable energies and the adaptation to the climatic changes in the archipelagos, Scott Morrison did not weaken in his support to the coal industry , which became Australia 's first source of export revenue last year, ahead of iron ore.

The President of Fiji has denounced the insulting, condescending, even authoritarian, attitude of the Australian Prime Minister. Referring to China's growing influence in the Pacific, in terms of development aid and investment in infrastructure projects, he added, " The Chinese do not insult us ."

The wrinkling of relations between the Pacific Islands and their historic Australian partner bodes well for Beijing.