Countries Pursuing Oil and Gas ‘Signing Away Our Future,’ UN Chief Tells Pacific Islands

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during a banquet dinner with Samoa's Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa (not pictured) at Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in Apia on August 22, 2024. (Photo by Manaui Faulalo / AFP) Photo by MANAUI FAULALO/AFP via Getty Images

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga with a speech that accused governments that issued new oil and gas licences of “signing away our future.”

Several low-lying Pacific nations are at risk from rising sea levels, so the message has particular resonance at this event, which is being held in Tonga’s capital of Nuku'alofa.

The Pacific Islands Forum is a regional grouping that includes Australia, New Zealand, and 16 Pacific states.

The Australian federal government recently announced it would permit new gas exploration off the coast of Victoria and Tasmania to increase the country’s supply. This move would see the retention of fossil fuels well past 2050.

Offshore petroleum exploration was banned in New Zealand in 2018, but the government has announced it will introduce a Bill to reverse that restriction in the second half of this year. It said the move was necessary to control electricity prices, ease the cost-of-living crisis, and grow the economy with international investment.

However Guterres told the Forum that “the oil and gas that will be discovered from now, I am absolutely sure it will never be used.”

2030 Agenda ‘Faltering’: Guterres

Speaking in front of Pacific world leaders and members of Tonga’s royal family, Guterres said the world was in the midst of a “turbulent time” and that humanity was treating the sea “like a sewer.”

“Raging conflicts, an escalating climate crisis, inequalities, and injustices everywhere. The 2030 Agenda is faltering,” he said.

“The G20—the biggest emitters—must step up and lead by phasing out the production and consumption of fossil fuels and stopping their expansion immediately.”

Guterres committed to mobilising “international resources for the Pacific Resilience Facility.” This regional fund, established by the Pacific Islands Forum to build community preparedness and resilience against the impacts of climate change and the frequent and intense disasters that hit the region every year, aims to raise US$1.5 billion.

“The region urgently needs substantial finance, capacities, and technology to speed up the transition and invest in adaptation and resilience,” the Secretary-General said.

At a press conference in Samoa on Aug. 23, Guterres pointed out that the Pacific region contributes just 0.02 percent of the world’s emissions.

“Yet you are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, dealing with extreme weather events from raging tropical cyclones to record ocean heatwaves.”

“The fate of the Pacific depends on limiting the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius,” he said.

Australian and NZ PMs to Attend Tomorrow

The Forum’s incoming chairman, Tongan Prime Minister Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, welcomed Guterres’ commitments and encouraged him to “take our stories to the global community.”

Neither New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon nor his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese were there to hear Guterres’ speech. Both are scheduled to arrive at the Forum tomorrow.

Guterres met Luxon last week during his second-ever visit to New Zealand. He told journalists on Aug. 24 that he didn’t raise the listing of the oil and gas ban with the prime minister as he believed it was “a futile exercise.”

The Pacific Islands Forum is scheduled to occupy the entire week and, aside from climate, will likely cover regional security issues, particularly the situation in New Caledonia.