Donald Trump’s attitude towards climate change is making progress “more difficult”, former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard has warned, as she says that climate issues can no longer be ignored or postponed.
Ms Gillard spoke to The Independent on the sidelines of a pre-COP climate summit in Nadi, Fiji, where more than 3,000 delegates have gathered for a meeting aiming to turn the dial away from further climate promises and towards delivering on commitments made at previous meetings.
But growing domestic pressures and heavy lobbying by the White House for countries to ditch climate commitments in favour of extracting more fossil fuels – led by an American president who has described climate action as a “con job" and “green scam” – is hindering efforts to deliver tangible change.
“Clearly the attitudes from President Trump and others who don’t want to talk about climate change does make things more difficult,” said Ms Gillard, who is currently chair of the Wellcome Trust.
“Geopolitics today is obviously fragmented, complicated. It’s not an easy world; it’s a world facing multiple challenges, [such as] hard power conflicts.”
But she suggested attitudes are changing again as the needle shifts on climate debates, following one of the most damaging years of weather events ever.
To date, 2026 has seen the northern hemisphere suffer its hottest-ever summer, the entire world experience its hottest-ever August, and a series of devastating climate events, including a vast mudslide in Nepal, massive wildfires across large swathes of Europe, and catastrophic rains in southern Africa.
“The scepticism about the science has fallen away,” Ms Gillard said. “At many earlier meetings, there was real contest about whether the science of climate change is right.
“You don’t hear that now, and you don’t hear it in domestic political debates much anymore either. People can feel and see that the climate is changing.”
However, climate scepticism has been replaced by growing movements around the world to scale down climate commitments, as populations demand more action to alleviate cost of living pressures following on from the pandemic, ongoing wars in Ukraine and Iran, and extreme weather events.
Ms Gillard said the current geopolitical context has meant “attention is on many other issues rather than concentrating on climate change,” adding: “There are many things to think about, but this is not something that can be ignored or postponed.”
The UK is a case in point, where calls to expand North Sea oil and gas production are growing amid claims such a move would boost economic activity, drive up local jobs and increase government tax revenue.
Trump is among those calling for further exploration, and claimed that prime minister Andy Burnham had vowed to “open up the North Sea”.
Burnham later indicated a more “pragmatic” approach, although exactly what will look like is unclear.
Delegates from the Pacific islands at the pre-COP conference hope to provide a counterweight to these domestic pressures, as they look to warn that the failure of countries to follow through on their climate promises must be held accountable in the courts.
The summit comes amid the backdrop of an ICJ advisory opinion in July 2025 which declared that, under international law, states have a binding legal duty to prevent environmental harm and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The case was, in fact, first brought by a group of young Pacific island students.
It also follows confirmation from the UN’s environment programme in September that the world is set to “overshoot” the legally binding limit of 1.5C of global warming.
Community leaders from across the Pacific Islands have shared stories of rising sea levels, flooding, coastal erosion, and rising sea temperatures leading to damaged coral reefs and marine ecosystems.
But the question of exactly what climate accountability looks like is still uncertain.
“Accountability is always an ongoing process,” Ms Gillard said. “It’s not just what happens at the summit, but it’s what happens in the days, weeks, months, years afterwards.”
She called on governments to “move away from vague commitments or loosely worded promises to real clarity about delivery”. This, she added, would allow local communities to hold their leaders to account, by saying “you were supposed to deliver this, and it hasn’t happened”.
“People definitely want to see change. They are not going to stop. They’re going to make sure that their case is heard and responded to,” she added.
The main COP31 summit will take place in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20, hosted jointly by Ankara and Australia.
The reporting trip for this article was funded by Wellcome as part of its work to promote its ’All Rise!’ and ’Birthright!’ campaigns ahead of COP31. Wellcome had no influence over the editorial content or decisions made in producing this article
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