Climate top of Commonwealth summit agenda amid grave forecast
Climate action is set to dominate discussion at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa, which King Charles and Queen Camilla will preside over for the first time.
It comes as a new report published by the UN Friday warns that without action the world could warm by up to 3.1C this century.
The biennial meeting is being hosted in the Pacific region for the first time, which experts and leaders say is pertinent timing to put a spotlight on climate impacts in the region.
The impacts of climate change pose an existential threat to smaller island nations.
An opening ceremony will precede the official group photo and the King will then hold a reception for newly appointed heads of state before a broader reception for leaders and their partners later in the evening.
A more secretive leaders retreat will take place at a beach resort on Saturday.
Pacific affairs expert George Carter said the meeting being held in the Pacific meant leaders had the chance to see first-hand the impact of climate change.
Heavy rains and localised flooding across the Samoan capital Apia on Thursday was a timely reminder of what vulnerable nations were going through, he told AAP.
“In terms of sea level rises, this has been an issue Pacific islands have focused on this year,” he said, referencing previous meetings at the Pacific Islands Forum and United Nations General Assembly where the issue was brought up.
“What’s unique is the lived experience and the reality of changing weather patterns here in the Pacific.”
Pacific expert Dr Meg Keen agreed island nations were pushing for concrete action on climate change, including seeking greater access to finance to tackle associated challenges, such as the need to build sea walls to stop the rising tide.
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Albanese has flagged Australia taking a leading role in addressing climate change after criticism from Tuvalu’s prime minister that larger Commonwealth nations needed to do more to phase out fossil fuels.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is also attending the meeting, said she hoped the leaders would be able to agree to a forward-leaning statement on climate action and outline steps to respond to the threats it poses.
Pacific island nations retaining sovereignty over exclusive economic zones – which grants rights over ocean resources across a specified area – as sea levels rise and threaten legal rights should also be addressed, she said.
Albanese will also hold his first face-to-face meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer since the latter took office.
King becomes Samoan ‘high chief’
The King has been made ‘Tui Taumeasina’, which means high chief, on his visit to the village of Moata’a,
He was presented with a half-coconut filled with the kava brew, which is slightly intoxicating and peppery, while the drink – which is known as “ava” locally – holds a special place in Pacific culture.
When the drink was ready, a Samoan man screamed as he decanted it, and then gave it to the king, who said “May God bless this ava” before taking a sip.
The King also toured a mangrove reserve to learn about the climate change impact on Pacific island nations, which are frequently battered by mega cyclones.
He has spent a lifetime raising awareness about environmental issues and has characterised global warming as the greatest threat to humanity.
The high chief title for Charles comes days after Australian indigenous crossbench Senator Lidia Thorpe accused the monarch of “genocide” during a protest at parliament in Canberra.
The king – who recently spent six days in Australia – is said to be in “good spirits”.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman told PEOPLE that Charles appreciated having the support of Camilla, 77, on the royal tour.
“She keeps his spirits up and is a reassurance, but she also steps in here and there,” Robert said.
“We know she is not particularly keen on long-haul travel and yet has thrown herself into this trip.”
UK faces pressure on slave reparation
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Britain’s leaders will likely face uncomfortable questions about reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade at Pacific talks in Samoa, after Caribbean leaders said they would thrust the matter into the spotlight.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had said that compensation for slavery wasn’t on the agenda.
But the issue threatens to boil over anyway, presaging an uneasy summit for Starmer and Britain’s King Charles, who is battling cancer but is also attending.
The Commonwealth group of 56 nations has “taken on issues other people have always run away from” before, the organisation’s Secretary-General Patricia Scotland told The Associated Press on Thursday when asked if financial reparations would feature in talks.
She didn’t confirm BBC reports that a draft text of the statement to be issued by leaders after meetings on Friday and Saturday includes an acknowledgement of calls for “reparatory justice” over the slave trade.
The text of the statement could change before its release, and British officials reportedly vetoed a plan for a separate declaration on reparations, the BBC said.
Caribbean and African leaders have led the push to address the reparations issue.
The summit should involve “a ‘come to Jesus’ moment where we truly look at one another in the eye and say, ‘look, this is what happened,’” Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis told Politico on Thursday.
A handful of nations have apologised for their role in slavery, including the Netherlands.
The UK has never formally apologised for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which enriched many individuals and companies.
Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807 but did not legislate to emancipate slaves in its territories until 1833.
A growing list of British institutions, including the Church of England, have begun to own up to their historic involvement in slavery.
The British government had said reparations would not be on the Commonwealth summit agenda, though it acknowledged on Thursday that the issue might be mentioned in the final communique.
Starmer said he wanted the summit to focus on the future, not the past, telling reporters as he arrived in Samoa that Commonwealth members had divulged to him they were “facing real challenges on things like climate in the here and now”.
Starmer isn’t the only one who might have preferred to keep the matter off the agenda.
The presence of King Charles could prompt uneasy questions — as it did in Australia — about the role of the British crown in the histories and aspirations of its former territories.
Charles and his eldest son, Prince William, have expressed their sorrow over slavery, but they haven’t acknowledged the crown’s connections to the trade, although the king last year endorsed a probe into the monarchy’s ties to the industry.
Studies and analysts have estimated the total that Britain could owe the descendants of millions of people whose slave labour funded the nation for centuries to be in the hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars.
Jacqueline McKenzie, a partner at London law firm Leigh Day who is working on the reparations issue, said its inclusion on the CHOGM leaders’ communique would be “hugely significant”.
The 75-year-old Commonwealth has a collective population of 2.7 billion people and a disparate range of member states — including some that don’t have historical ties to Britain.
Observers will be assessing whether Charles can unify their purpose as his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, once did.
– TND/AAP
