Energy Minister Chris Bowen has sidestepped questions Anthony Albanese left the pre-COP Pacific climate event before taking questions from the media as island leaders call for follow-through on climate pledges.

Mr Bowen also sought to deflect focus from an awkward interaction on Tuesday during which Mr Albanese declined a traditional Tuvaluan headdress.

“Look, it was offered to me. I accepted it, I’m advised (that is) perfectly acceptable to do so,” Mr Bowen said.

“And we’re focused on issues of sea level rise and the impacts of (climate change) on Tuvalu which is what I’m focused on.”

Mr Bowen addressed the media after Mr Albanese and much of the press pack left Fiji on Wednesday.

He noted he had held two press conferences during the event.

“Leaders are engaged with each other, I’m here answering questions and we’ll do it again tomorrow,” he said, according to The Australia.

The pre-COP event, spread over multiple days in Tuvalu and Fiji and attended by representatives from more than 50 countries, was marred by controversy long before it got under way on Monday, with the Coalition lambasting the expenditure after Australia’s failed co-bid to host COP31.

Liberal frontbencher Michael McCormack described it on Tuesday as “another gabfest”.

While Mr Bowen said “you could always hope for more” and described the event as “a first step”, he also defended its outcomes.

“This is about COP31 … and I think our effort has been to increase the Pacific focus on COP31, and we’ve managed to do that,” he said.

Mr Bowen also noted Nepal’s Foreign Minister was present at the event months after devastating flood there that have since been linked to climate change.

Mine appeal dismissed

The High Court has ruled in favour of a Hunter Valley community group in Australia’s first climate change case in the country’s highest court.

In a landmark judgment, the High Court upheld the unanimous NSW Court of Appeal ruling that the independent Planning Commission had failed a mandatory legal obligation when it approved the expansion of MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coalmine in the state’s Hunter Valley region.

The commission had failed to consider how pollution from mine exports might affect the region, including through increased bushfire risks and extreme heat.

“The commission was obliged to consider whether to grant consent subject to conditions to ensure that all GHG emissions, including scope 3 GHG emissions, are minimised to the greatest extent practicable. The Court of Appeal erred in finding otherwise,” the High Court ruled.

In its judgment, the High Court noted neither MACH Energy nor any other party to the case had submitted approval should be granted with conditions to reduce emissions.

The case could set a national precedent as to how such projects are judged on the basis of potential climate impacts.

The project will also be sent back to the NSW Land and Environment Court or the commission for assessment.

‘Drive global action’

In his opening remarks before Tuesday’s leaders’ forum, Mr Albanese said Australia was “strongly committed to the Pacific” and to giving the region’s low-lying island nations “the platform that they deserve to tell and shape their story in order to drive global action”.

“At home, Australia is acting. From electrifying our homes and businesses to rapidly increasing our renewable energy supply,” he said.

“In the December quarter of last year was the first time that we had renewable energy provide more than half of our energy supply. And that was in the quarter in which there was more energy use than any previously. In a relatively short period of time, it shows what can be done.”

As part of a $7.29m package, Australia will seek to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy across the region, including a new agreement to support Vanuatu’s transition.

A separate $3m investment was also announced to help Pacific communities protect infrastructure from the impacts of climate change.

Leaders also signed the Taku Pakasoa Deceleration in Tuvalu that sought to keep “alive” Paris Agreement global warming targets as well as recognise the Pacific’s role in cementing states’ obligation to undertake climate action, including at the International Court of Justice Advisory.

Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka pitched his Ocean of Peace and agreements on climate action as a chance to “show the world multilateralism can rise to this challenge”.

“We can be bold because science is on our side. Technology is ready, and our people’s future relies on us,” he said.

Mr Rabuka urged that agreements struck in Tuvalu be a “proxy for evaluating our efforts” on climate action.

“We must ask in five years’ time: ‘Has Tuvalu received the support needed to expand the coastal protection efforts that they have begun?’

“So tonight, I ask that we make the commitment needed to protect both the smallest and the largest among us.

“That we signal unequivocally that we are committed to curtailing the overshoot that contravenes our legal obligations and moral objectives.”

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