PREVIEW: Climate change, Fiji, China key at Pacific Islands summit

By David Barber Sep 6, 2011, 9:21 GMT

Wellington - Climate change causing rising sea levels that could drown low-lying island states in the Pacific is expected to dominate a regional summit in Auckland this week.

The agenda will include Fiji, suspended from the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) after a military coup in December 2006; a new campaign for independence by associate member French Polynesia; and Washington's concern about China's growing interest in the region.

The 40th PIF summit starting Wednesday is attracting an unusually high level of participants for meetings with the region's leaders.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have been given speaking slots on the first day. Both have made it clear that climate change is a top priority.

France, nervous about a renewed campaign for independence by its Pacific territory French Polynesia, is sending its foreign minister to attend the summit for the first time.

Alain Juppe's task will be to counter lobbying by French Polynesia President Oscar Temaru and a delegation seeking fellow Pacific leaders' support for a resolution to add the territory to the UN list of countries that should be decolonised.

The United States is sending its highest-level delegation ever to a PIF summit, demonstrating Washington's desire to re-establish its influence in the Pacific in the face of increasing interest and aid to the region from China.

Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R Nides will be accompanied by Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell as well as officials from the White House, departments of state, defence and commerce, the US Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps and the Coast Guard.

Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai will represent China, which is locked in a struggle with Taiwan for influence in the region. While most nations maintain full diplomatic relations with Beijing, six PIF members are among the 23 countries that have preferred formal ties with Taipei, in return for extensive aid.

On his way to New Zealand, Ban Ki-moon visited Kiribati, one of the region's states most vulnerable to rising sea levels with one high island and 32 low-lying atolls spread across 4,000 kilometres of the Pacific.

President Anote Tong has warned that he must find new homes for his 100,000 citizens because global warming could make the country, where the average height above sea level is two metres, disappear during this century.

'The high tide shows that it is high time to act. I was so surprised to see the impact of these high tides, inundating these villages and roads,' the UN secretary-general said. 'That can be prevented if we act now.'

Barroso is bringing the European Union's commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, a Dane who chaired the controversial 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen.

Barroso said he will stress the key role the EU intends to play as a major donor of aid in the region to promote sustainable development and help mitigate the impact of climate change.

Forum leaders issued a 'call to action' on climate change at their summit two years ago, but have made little progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions since then.

There are signs that some Melanesian PIF members, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, would like to see Fiji brought back into the fold. It has been ostracized since military strongman Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama ousted the elected government nearly five years ago.

Host New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, however, maintains the PIF line that democracy must be restored first, and will oppose any move that legitimizes the military dictatorship.