A fair-weather friend: Australia's relationship with a climate-changed Pacific

Climate change will bring significant challenges to the island nations of the Pacific. This paper examines Australia\u27s attitudes to climate change in the region under the two most recent federal governments. The Howard Government\u27s engagement with the region profoundly influenced understandings of Australia\u27s role in a climate-changed Pacific. Initially in opposition and later in government, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) took issue with this approach and recast discussions of security in the Pacific as \u27collective\u27 within a developmental \u27human security\u27 framework. Generous adaptation assistance was guaranteed to Pacific nations and the ALP promised to champion compassionate solutions to the problem of displaced neighbours. But over halfway into its first term, the Rudd Government has failed to secure a more hopeful outlook for Pacific Islanders when it comes to climate change