Pacific forum meeting coincides with UNEP report release
A new United Nations Environment Programme report released in Koror, Palau, on 2 September 2026 prompted fresh climate warnings from Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
UNEP’s report, Limiting Overshoot – Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return, was released as world leaders met for the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau. It sets out the consequences of a 1.8°C world for the Pacific and Australia, including climate disaster, loss and damage.
Greenpeace argued the findings show governments must do everything possible to return warming to 1.5°C. The group also described climate change as the greatest security threat facing the Pacific.
Meanwhile, fracked gas from the Beetaloo Basin began flowing for the first time. Greenpeace linked that start to the UNEP report and called Beetaloo one of Australia’s biggest climate bombs.
According to Greenpeace, Australia is the biggest polluter among Pacific Islands Forum member states. The organisation said Australia’s emissions far exceed those of all other forum members combined.
Greenpeace urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to put Pacific climate priorities at the centre of the forum. It also called on him to match that stance with stronger climate action.
Beetaloo gas flow draws criticism
Speaking from Palau, Shiva Gounden, head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the UNEP report showed in “black and white” that fossil fuel-hungry nations had acted “at the expense of Pacific lives, livelihoods, cultures and communities”.
Gounden also warned that the forum had made it clear that climate change is the region’s biggest security threat. He said leaders could not waste time on geopolitical power games while Pacific communities face rising climate risks.
As a result, Greenpeace pushed for a rapid shift to renewable energy. Gounden pointed to solar, wind and sea power as ways to steer warming back toward 1.5°C.
Also in Palau, Greenpeace climate expert and COP31 lead Dr Simon Bradshaw said: “The UN report is warning that we are now in bloody dangerous territory.”
Bradshaw said the report lays out the consequences of fossil fuel expansion and of ignoring Pacific voices after decades of warnings.
Greenpeace made those comments in Koror, Palau, on Wednesday 2 September 2026 during the Pacific Islands Forum. The organisation did not identify any new policy commitments from forum leaders or give a timetable for changes in Australian climate policy.
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