Nanna Tracey’s account of her journey to Fiji’s Pre-COP conference on board Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s Oceania.
Oceania set sail in early October into turbulent seas and fierce southerly winds—an apt reflection of the ill winds blowing through international climate negotiations.
In September, the United Nations Environment Programme released a Limiting Overshoot Report, highlighting the devastating consequences of global warming overshooting the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal, currently measured at 1.8°C.
Greenpeace’s Pacific Climate Campaign identifies Australia as a major polluter of the Pacific, far exceeding all other countries combined. Greenpeace calls on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to put Pacific priorities first and demonstrate genuine climate leadership as a member of the Pacific family.
As Greenpeace’s Simon Bradshaw observed, the Paris Agreement establishes obligations for wealthy nations whose prosperity has been built on fossil fuels, to support other countries to transition to renewable energy, adapt to climate impacts and compensate for loss and damage.
Oceania: A voyage for climate justice
The 70-foot ketch Oceania is Greenpeace’s first vessel dedicated to campaigning around Australia and the Pacific. Having previously supported campaigns against Woodside’s gas expansion plans and to protect Scott Reef, this voyage to Fiji was her first Pacific campaign.
I joined the eight-person delivery crew for the journey. We spent 15 days at sea, battling severe conditions and winds of up to 45 knots. Storms forced us to shelter in Coffs Harbour and Noumea, where one crew member had to disembark because of seasickness.
Eventually, we sailed against the trade winds into Suva, where a traditional welcome of kava and spectacular Meke dancing greeted us.
Oceania became a platform for Greenpeace’s Fossil Fuel Free Pacific campaign. In Suva, school students joined us in outreach, education and collaboration.
Kioa: A community adapting to climate displacement
From Suva, Oceania sailed to Kioa, between Vanua Levu and Taveuni, where around 400 Tuvaluans have established a community after relocating from their vulnerable island homeland.
We were welcomed by a fleet of outrigger canoes and shared daily feasts with the community. We experienced the richness of their drumming, dancing, traditional dress and crafts, their magnificent singing and their community work.
Despite the growing threats of rising seas and intensifying storms, the community sustains itself through traditional crops such as taro and cassava, fruit and vegetables, pig-rearing; fishing and handicrafts sold locally and to tourists on Taveuni.
A solar energy project was being installed, and Greenpeace crew helped construct a small dam and pipeline to improve the community’s water supply. Previously, both electricity and water had been available for only four hours a day. This was climate action at the community level: practical, collaborative and grounded in local needs.
Greenpeace was also there to support Tuvaluan and other Pacific communities to carry their demands for climate justice to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP).
From Kioa, Oceania sailed west to Nadi, Fiji the site of the Pre-COP conference on 5-8 October. It was funded by the Australian Government after its bid to host COP31 in the Pacific was unsuccessful. COP31 will be held in Türkiye from 9-20 November.
Contrasts between Pacific realities and wealth
On our way to Nadi we saw Obsidian, an 84.2-meter (276-foot) superyacht, worth $180 million. Her maximum range is 5,500 nautical miles, she can accommodate up to 14 guests in 7 staterooms, with 27 crew members. Owner, Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, made his money in oil and gas in the Czech Republic during the 1990s, and is now the largest lottery owner in Europe.
Instead of outrigger canoes and local transport ‘fibre’ (small whale) boats, Oceania was moored at Denarau alongside superyachts like 60m MV Andiamo. Gleaming vessels 200+ feet long, bristling with satellites and jetboats were moored in the marina showing no sign of human habitation.
MY Andiamo’s annual running costs are around $5 million. The current owner, Sir Michael Hintze, is an Australian-British hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and the founder and CEO of CQS, a leading investment management firm in London.
As mobility and security become more important to the wealthy, the global fleet is exploding – with over 5000 superyachts. Paralleling the weapons and tech industries the global superyacht industry is now a €54 billion economic ecosystem and growing at 70% annually.
In stark contrast to Oceania’s mission of support to the Pacific community in the face of a climate crisis these superyachts lurk in the world’s pleasanter waters, guzzling 100s of litres of fuel awaiting their oligarch owners’ occasional visits – or the potential need to escape a collapsing planet.
The newest and largest superyachts are less pleasure yachts and more floating security fortresses. Currently, the most expensive superyacht Eclipse at $1.5billion, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abraamovich, has a missile-defence system, bulletproof windows, and laser security technology. It carries two helipads, a mini-submarine and is serviced by around 70 crew. Abramovich reportedly owns 6-8 vessels in total, according to Superyacht Guide.
The money that finances these floating bunkers is mostly accumulated from the industries that are driving climate breakdown and inequality. The owners lean heavily on decision makers to override planetary boundaries and the interests of the other 99%. The majority of Superyachts are registered in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.
Pre-COP
The Pre-COP offered Pacific nations an opportunity to press for their demands for climate action, accountability and legal responsibility ahead of COP31.
The theme of Pre-COP was Keeping 1.5 Alive: Defending science and accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, Australia hurtles past our emissions targets, the Pacific sinks, and the Nepalese are washed away by thawing glaciers.
The attendance of world leaders at Pre-COP was disappointing. However, the absence of fossil fuel industry representatives offered some relief, allowing grassroots voices greater space to be heard.
Australia, Timor-Leste, Fiji and Vanuatu were represented. Despite the climate commitments expressed by Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen, Australia did not increase support for Pacific climate adaptation and mitigation, while Fiji committed a further $10 million to support its smaller neighbours.
Grassroots voices and the struggle for climate finance
Pacific leaders hosted the Pre-COP through a Talanoa approach: an inclusive dialogue based on sharing experiences, listening and building collective understanding.
The civil society stakeholder program brought community organisations, researchers and policymakers together to discuss climate finance, adaptation, resilience, loss and damage, and the relationship between oceans and climate.
A major concern was the difficulty grassroots organisations face in accessing climate funding. Complex accounting requirements and carbon-credit processes can overwhelm small organisations, even when they have practical solutions ready to implement.
Most projects remained small-scale, unable to expand without substantial public investment. We visited a village where repeated inundation by polluted water from the Nadi River had been addressed by raising the riverbank, using just $17,000 in Fijian Government funding. It was a powerful example of how relatively modest investment can deliver tangible benefits.
Communities face exhaustion after repeated disasters — resilience can no longer be the only hope for recovery after disaster upon disaster. Resilience is no substitute for adequate funding, meaningful government action and responsibility from those contributing most to climate change.
Climate displacement
Another discussion concerned statelessness and the rights of people displaced by rising seas, increasingly severe storms and the loss of productive land and freshwater. What happens to a nation when its territory becomes uninhabitable?
Tuvalu’s efforts to preserve its national identity highlight the urgent need to protect the rights, nationality and dignity of people forced to leave their homelands.
Legal Accountability
The Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change made a compelling case for legal accountability. Their advocacy surrounding the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion (ICJ AO) has strengthened demands for governments to meet their climate obligations.
The ICJ AO is clear that nation states are not indemnified against climate harm caused by their failure to reduce emissions under the Paris Treaty.
Legal arguments have direct implications for Australia. Science links climate impacts to emissions. This highlights the financial and security risks of continuing to approve massive carbon emitting projects.
While Pacific leaders were meeting, the NSW government approved a major coal expansion, pending federal approval, then threatened the High Court’s landmark ruling on scope 3 emissions with legislation in favour of the Mt Pleasant mine in the Hunter Valley. Australia cannot credibly champion Pacific climate security internationally while continuing to support fossil fuel expansion domestically.
The student’s message was clear: “Climate Justice is not Charity” and “Harm = Obligation”
As Abdul Mufeed Shaheed, the organisation’s Engagement and Outreach Lead, explained: “The science was always on our side, so now we have the law on our side.”
President Anote Tong, former President of Kiribati and Chair of Pacific Elders Voice, called for climate change to be treated as a moral crisis, not simply an environmental or economic issue. For countries like his it is an issue of survival.
“Lose Tuvalu, Lose Our World. Save The Pacific, Save Our World,” is the rallying cry of Pacific civil society representatives who urgently endorsed the “The Funafuti Call for Climate Justice” ahead of COP31. “The 1.5°C warming limit remains a non-negotiable threshold for Pacific survival. It is backed by the recent legal weight of the ICJ AO.”
Fijian human rights lawyer Kavita Naidu said — “Climate justice cannot be separated from self-determination, demilitarisation and an end to extractive ‘transition’ projects. We must stand against development partners who arrive offering false climate solutions while simultaneously driving the crisis back home through fossil fuel extraction.”
She outlined the complexity of global pressures on the Pacific. “You cannot destroy and extract from the global south to suit the transition needs of the global north”.
The Pacific is also under threat from the rush for critical rare earth minerals, and deep-sea mining, for weapons and militarisation of the Pacific. Naidu calls out ‘Green’ and ‘Blue’ colonialism that threaten indigenous land and the ocean.
“We reject a securitised, militarised and nuclearized Pacific and AUKUS style security pacts and bilateral security agreements which undermine Pacific sovereignty and leave the region beholden to foreign state demands.”
What was achieved at Pre-COP?
The most valuable aspect of the conference was the opportunity for grassroots voices to be heard — community representatives, village organisations and union organisers, bringing community experience, traditional knowledge and local solutions into international negotiations. But listening is not enough. Communities need accessible finance, meaningful participation and governments prepared to act on their commitments.
Our shared future
The people contributing least to climate change are often the first to suffer its consequences. Pacific communities face extraordinary exposure to rising seas, storms and the loss of land and freshwater. Yet their resourcefulness, cultural continuity, subsistence practices and strong community relationships offer important lessons in resilience and collective action.
My journey on Oceania reinforced the need to listen to Pacific communities — not simply as victims of climate change, but as leaders with knowledge, determination and solutions to share.
Their message is clear: climate justice requires more than promises. It demands an urgent transition away from fossil fuels, adequate funding for adaptation and loss and damage, and accountability for those responsible.
Sharing stories, standing together and challenging extractive capitalism are essential to achieving climate justice. Our future depends on it.
Where is Greenpeace Oceania now?
After Fiji, Oceania continued to New Zealand to campaign against another major extractive threat: deep-sea mining.