SYDNEY, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australia has upped its disaster relief for the Pacific in an attempt to appeasing regional leaders while continuing it's fossil-fuel policies.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday announced an 80-million-Australian dollar (60.91-million-U.S. dollar) increase to the low-lying Pacific islands vulnerable to climate change at the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) in Micronesia.
The four-year 300-million-Australian dollar package (228.41-million-U.S. dollar) will be used on engineering projects to protect against flooding from cyclones, early warning systems and rain water catchment tanks, Turnbull said.
"For Australia, there is no more pressing need for regional action than on climate change and resilient development," Turnbull told the PIF leaders summit.
Australia and New Zealand were both admonished at the 2015 summit - which preceded the Paris climate talks - for not committing to stronger action on climate change.
Australia has still refused to make a deeper commitment to reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions, continuing policies that encourage fossil fuel use.
In defending his actions, Turnbull told reporters in Pompeii there is no doubt the world needs to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, where "everyone has to play their part."
"The good thing is we do have a global agreement," Turnbull said, pointing to the COP 21 agreement in Paris where global leaders agreed to keep temperature rises to below 2 degree Celsius.
"Australia has a commitment ... which we are sticking to, which we'll meet."
The Pacific however has consistently been calling on world to restrict the global warming temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, fearing that a 2-degree target will risk the existence of many islands.
It has been reported the small island nation of Kiribati has bought land in Fiji in case the country must evacuate and that sea water is encroaching on grave sites in Marshall Islands.
"Australian governments will also find it increasingly hard to convince Pacific island countries they are a friend as well as a neighbor," University of the South Pacific lecturer in politics and international affairs Wesley Morgan wrote in an opinion editorial published by The Conversation.
A report released by Oxfam Australia claimed Australia was not doing enough in the Pacific to help curb the effects of climate change, calling for an extra 3.2 billion Australian dollars (2.44 billion U.S. dollars) of funding before the end of the decade.
