The most wealthy Australians account for more carbon emissions each year than all Pacific Islanders combined, according to new analysis.
The research conducted by Oxfam was released ahead of a virtual Pacific Islands Forum on Friday night that Prime Minister Scott Morrison will attend.
It found the top five per cent of Australians – or around 1.2 million people – account for more carbon emissions annually than the 11 million citizens of Pacific Island countries.
The analysis also found the energy consumption of Australians collectively produces eight times as many carbon emissions each year as Pacific Islanders.
Oxfam chief executive Lyn Morgain said the research showed Australia needed to take stronger action to limit emissions to support Pacific Island nations that are already bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change.
“When Pacific Island leaders ask Australia for action, it is very important to realise that we are making an outsized contribution to emissions,” she told SBS News.
“At a time when across the globe we are being asked to do everything we can to reduce our emissions … we need to be considerably more ambitious.”
The research was based on the most recent available data of consumption emissions from 2015 and builds on analysis conducted by Oxfam called Confronting Carbon Inequality, released in September.
Mr Morrison last week received an open letter from Pacific political and religious leaders, including former prime ministers and presidents, calling on Australia to be more ambitious with its climate change policy.
The leaders urged the Australian government to commit to not using credits from past climate agreements towards future targets along with net-zero emissions by 2050.
Mr Morrison on Friday said he planned to use the meeting with Pacific Island leaders that evening to outline his climate change policy.
“Australia is well on track to hit our 2030 targets and our reliance on those issues [Kyoto credits]. I’ll have more to say about that in the not too distant future,” he said.
“We’ve got a great track record and I’ll be sharing that track record again with Pacific Island leaders this evening.”
The prime minister has flagged his ambition to meet Australia’s carbon emission targets under the Paris Agreement without relying on carryover credits from the Kyoto Protocol agreement.
The federal government recently released updated national greenhouse gas emissions projections claiming Australia is nearly on track to meet its 2030 target without using carry-over credits.
Ms Morgain said she expected Pacific leaders would be “very direct” in their discussions about the need for stronger action on climate change.
“We need to match our climate action ambition to the scale of the threat and the threat is very great,” she said.
“In the same way as the whole world now is clearly looking to Australia to say, ‘you are a big polluter, you need to make dramatic change’.”
Australia’s current goal is for a 26 to 28 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions levels by 2030 under the Paris agreement.
But Mr Morrison has resisted adopting a policy of net-zero emissions by 2050, instead saying he wants to achieve the goal in the second half of the century.
This is despite the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and the incoming Biden administration in the United States committing to the long-term goal.
Mr Morrison was also forced to downplay an apparent snub this week after failing to secure a speaking slot at another upcoming virtual climate summit on 12 December.
