Amnesty International Urges Action, Not Just Speeches, as Pre-COP31 Meetings Open in the Pacific

October 4, 2026 — As Pacific leaders, communities and civil society gather in Fiji and Tuvalu for the Pre-COP31 meetings, Amnesty International has warned that the expected absence of many world leaders must not become another excuse for climate inaction, launching a global campaign spotlighting environmental human rights defenders on the eve of the talks.

Background

The Pacific-led Pre-COP31 meetings will take place in Nadi, Fiji, and Tuvalu from 5 to 8 October 2026, serving as the official preparatory gathering ahead of COP31, the UN Climate Change Conference scheduled for Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. Under an agreement negotiated between Australia and Türkiye, Türkiye secured hosting rights for the main COP31 event, with Australia leading the negotiations track, while Fiji hosts the Pre-COP ministerial meeting and Tuvalu — one of the Pacific atolls most threatened by rising sea levels — hosts a special leaders’ component.

Around 4,000 delegates are expected to attend, working to finalize agreements that will be concluded at COP31 in November. For Pacific governments, climate change is not merely environmental policy but a matter of immediate national security and physical survival, a reality organizers say makes hosting the preparatory talks in the region itself significant — giving participating countries the opportunity to hear directly from Pacific representatives and keep the region’s priorities central ahead of the Antalya summit.

Amnesty’s Campaign and Warning

Ahead of the meetings, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said the expected absence of many world leaders from the Pacific gathering must not become another excuse for climate inaction. The organization is using the occasion to launch a global campaign titled “Protecting our Future: Environmental Human Rights Defenders Powering Just Transitions,” spotlighting environmental human rights defenders and the alternatives they are fighting for around the world.

The campaign draws on a new Amnesty International report of the same name, which includes accounts of First Nations people challenging offshore oil and gas exploration threatening their communities. “Environmental defenders are protecting our shared future,” the organization said, framing their protection and support as inseparable from genuine climate justice. “No climate justice without environmental defenders,” Amnesty stated, pointing to Indigenous Peoples, environmental defenders and frontline communities worldwide who are resisting fossil fuel expansion and advocating for fairer, more sustainable futures.

Amnesty International Australia separately called on Australia specifically to end fossil fuel expansion and support environmental defenders as a test of genuine climate leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. Nikita White, Strategic Campaigner at Amnesty International Australia, said anything less than concrete action “would betray our shared responsibility to uphold human rights and secure climate justice.”

Legal Momentum from the Pacific

Amnesty highlighted the legal momentum already generated by Pacific-led climate advocacy, noting that students from the Pacific took the fight against climate change to the world’s top court, leading the International Court of Justice to issue a landmark Advisory Opinion in July 2025 — a ruling that made clear governments have a legal obligation to protect human rights from climate change impacts. This advisory opinion has become a reference point for Pacific nations pressing wealthier countries for stronger commitments at Pre-COP31 and beyond.

Pacific Priorities Heading into Antalya

Based on its recommendations ahead of COP31, Amnesty International said Australia and other governments must use Pre-COP31 to advance three core priorities, centered on translating political visibility into concrete, enforceable outcomes rather than symbolic gestures. Pacific climate advocates and regional organizations have echoed this call, with groups such as 350.org Pacific and the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network stressing that the Pre-COP process “must translate political visibility into concrete outcomes that advance justice and ambition for all, while centring the lived realities of frontline communities.”

Conclusion

As Pre-COP31 opens in Fiji and Tuvalu this week, Amnesty International’s campaign underscores a recurring tension in the lead-up to COP31: the gap between symbolic recognition of Pacific climate leadership and the concrete financial and policy commitments vulnerable nations say they urgently need. With roughly 4,000 delegates working to finalize the groundwork for Antalya, the coming days will test whether the Pacific’s central role in hosting these preparatory talks translates into stronger outcomes for frontline communities — or whether, as Amnesty warns, leader absences become another deferral of accountability ahead of November’s summit.