Why Albanese will pay a domestic price for his Pacific diplomacy

October 7, 2026 — 1:19pm

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Whatever the success or failure of the pre-COP meeting in Fiji, it is clear the Albanese government will wear a political cost for putting it on.

Normally, these annual gatherings are small affairs attended only by officials whose job it is to narrow the scope of climate negotiations at the sprawling UN Paris Treaty negotiations to follow.

But after Australia lost the bid to host the next COP to Turkey, the price Climate Minister Chris Bowen extracted for conceding was his role as president of negotiations, and the agreement that a leaders’ level pre-COP would be held in the Pacific.

This way Australia could rattle the can for donations to the region from far-flung nations for the eye-bleeding cost of climate mitigation in the Pacific, elevate its climate concerns, and show off the damage already done to low-lying nations to demonstrate the immediate threat of climate change.

The problem is that few of those leaders made the trip. Indeed, just two from outside the Pacific fronted – those of Timor-Leste........

© WA Today