Pacific nations facing acute fuel shortages will meet next week in Vanuatu as immediate economic pain accelerates a push for a coordinated regional position on phasing out fossil fuels. Fiji this week raised petrol prices by 20 percent amid supply disruptions linked to the Iran war, Tuvalu has begun sending government workers home, and the Marshall Islands has declared a 90-day economic emergency — developments organisers say underline the urgency of the Pacific’s negotiating stance ahead of a major global climate diplomacy moment.
Ministers and senior officials from Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) are due in Port Vila from 13–15 April for the third Pacific Ministerial Dialogue on the Global Just Transition, a preparatory summit — dubbed Port Vila II — intended to shape the region’s collective approach to the First International Conference on Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia later this month. The Port Vila meeting will aim to consolidate a unified Pacific stance on a managed global phase-out of fossil fuels and to build momentum for full regional backing of the Fossil Fuel Treaty proposal.
Port Vila II also plans to establish a PSIDS Inter-Governmental Taskforce to lead coordinated regional engagement during upcoming international negotiations, organisers said. That body is expected to steer technical and political input from the Pacific into the Santa Marta talks, ensuring smaller island states’ priorities are represented as global positions on timelines, compensation mechanisms and transition finance are negotiated.
“The Pacific did not create the fossil fuel crisis, yet we are paying the highest price for it,” Vanuatu’s Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Ralph Regenvanu, said in a statement. He warned that communities across the region are “on the frontlines of sea level rise, intensifying cyclones, and the slow erasure of the only homes we have ever known,” and stressed that Port Vila II must ensure Pacific voices do not just “get heard at Santa Marta — it must shape what happens there.”
The Pacific’s organizing effort traces back to Port Vila in March 2023, when PSIDS first articulated a collective vision for a Fossil Fuel–Free Pacific after twin Category‑4 cyclones battered Vanuatu. Ministers and advocates say recent fuel supply shocks — and the immediate economic impacts such as the spike in petrol prices in Fiji and state workforce disruptions in Tuvalu — have sharpened political will to push for a multilateral framework that addresses both emissions reductions and the socio-economic costs of transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Joseph Sikulu, Pacific Champion for the Fossil Fuel Treaty, reiterated that Pacific leadership on the issue is driven by survival: “For Pacific Islands, leading on Climate has never been a choice; it has been a matter of survival for us. We are constantly at the forefront pushing for ambition and testing the limits of multilateralism. We were the first to call for a fossil fuel treaty, knowing we need to try everything we can to bring about the transformation we need.”
The regional push is taking place against a backdrop of international tension over fossil-fuel producing nations’ policies. Organisers flagged Australia — a major fossil fuel exporter and Pacific neighbour — as a critical actor, observing that continued approvals for coal and gas projects by Canberra complicate its role as a partner in a genuine managed phase‑out. Pacific delegates will be seeking not only stronger global commitments at Santa Marta but also clear pathways for finance, just transition measures and accountability for historical emitters.
With Port Vila II set to convene days before the Santa Marta conference, organisers say the meeting’s outputs — including the taskforce’s formation and any agreed regional positions — will be the Pacific’s latest and most coordinated attempt to translate immediate crisis conditions into durable international commitments on ending fossil fuel dependence.
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