Fiji will host this year’s ministerial pre-COP gathering ahead of the UN climate summit COP31, organisers confirmed last month, in a development that positions the Pacific at the centre of preparatory diplomacy even though the main summit will be held in Türkiye. The Pacific pre-COP will take place in Suva with a leaders’ segment convened in Funafuti, Tuvalu, and is being billed as an opportunity to foreground the lived realities of small, shock‑exposed nations in the run-up to negotiations in Antalya.
The arrangement emerged from a diplomatic compromise between Australia and Türkiye after Canberra’s long campaign to bring the summit to the Pacific failed to secure consensus. Türkiye will host COP31 and lead the Action Agenda — the forum’s arm for voluntary pledges and initiatives outside formal text-based negotiations — while Australia has accepted a newly created role of “President of Negotiations.” That role, to be represented at the summit by Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen, gives Canberra authority to steer consultations and influence draft negotiating texts at critical moments.
The Pacific Islands Forum’s announcement that Fiji and Tuvalu will host the region’s pre-COP is the most concrete sign yet that Pacific states secured a foothold in COP31 planning despite not hosting the main summit. The pre-COP’s setting — across Suva and Funafuti — was highlighted by Lowy Institute authors Melanie Pill, Georgia Hammersley and Alexandre Dayant as uniquely able to inject urgency into what are often technical precursor meetings, enabling delegates to witness rising seas and intensifying storms that are already reshaping Pacific life and livelihoods.
In a new Lowy Institute policy brief accompanying the announcement, the authors set out three policy steps they say could turn the hosting compromise into tangible gains for the Pacific and broader global ambition. The first recommends using the Pacific pre-COP to build early political momentum and a broad coalition of climate‑vulnerable developing countries, with an agenda that goes beyond the Pacific’s immediate concerns to include large-scale adaptation finance, reforms to speed access to funds, and stronger fossil fuel commitments. The brief argues the agenda must attract senior political participation — including a visible role for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — and targeted invitations so the meeting becomes a leaders’ event few can afford to ignore.
The second recommendation focuses on Australia’s new negotiating authority. Represented by Bowen, Australia can influence text at moments when ambition is at risk of being diluted, the brief says, and should coordinate closely with Türkiye’s Action Agenda to ensure the Pacific’s priorities appear in headline initiatives. The authors call on Canberra to hold the line on fossil fuels by reinforcing COP28’s language on transitioning away from fossil fuels and to seek credible voluntary commitments — for example through declarations like the Belém initiative — where full consensus proves elusive.
The brief’s third recommendation urges that diplomacy be backed by delivery: negotiation leadership must be matched by concrete financing, implementation pathways and faster, more accessible climate finance for vulnerable states. The authors point to nascent innovations such as the Australia–Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty — described as a world‑first in recognising continuity of statehood alongside pathways for climate migration — as practical starting points that could be scaled or replicated.
Taken together, the policy prescriptions aim to convert symbolic wins — a Pacific pre‑COP and a formal negotiating role for Australia — into outcomes that accelerate adaptation funding, protect maritime rights, and strengthen commitments to phase down fossil fuels. With COP31 scheduled to convene in Antalya, the coming months will test whether the Pacific’s pre‑COP and Australia’s negotiating remit translate into concrete gains for nations on the climate frontlines.
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