Apenisa Waqairadovu 
Members of the Pacific Islands Forum can count on Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions by 43 percent by 2030.
This commitment by Australia was reinforced by its Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Penny Wong on her first official visit to the region after their re-election.
Wong says this commitment and Australia’s reaching net zero by 2050 are enshrined in the law.
She says they are also committed to ensuring that 82 percent of Australia’s electricity generation is renewable within this decade.
Wong says during their first term when they came to office in 2022, just 32 percent of Australia’s electricity generation was renewable, and the Albanese government has already increased it to a record 46 percent renewables by the end of 2024.
She says in her home state of South Australia, they now generate more than 70 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.
Wong says Australia has listened to the Pacific’s call for urgent climate action, and they are on track to deliver $3 billion in climate finance by this year.
She adds they are backing Pacific climate solutions by investing in the Pacific Resilience Facility, a Pacific-led and Pacific-owned facility to deliver climate finance directly to communities.
She says these communities see the injustice of the climate crisis, where those who contributed the least to the crisis are the most vulnerable to its impacts.
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