Fiji, Oct. 9 -- Australian Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says Australia's shift towards renewable energy is central to its efforts to work with Pacific countries on climate change, as questions grow over the country's continued fossil fuel exports.

Bowen was asked whether he had discussed a recent Australian High Court ruling on a New South Wales coal mine expansion with Pacific Island ministers during the Pacific Pre-COP31 in Fiji.

The court ruled that an approval for an extended coal mine was invalid because the planning authority should have considered the climate impacts of coal burned after export.

Bowen said no Pacific minister had specifically raised the ruling with him, describing it as a decision concerning th...