Australia's Pasifika community can take on the task of leading climate crisis efforts in Australia and for their island homes, Uniting Church reverend Faaimata (Mata) Havea Hiliau says.

Climate Ministers from Pacific nations joined Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen in Western Sydney on Thursday for Talanoa, with stories from the local Pasifika community of the impacts of climate change shared.

Talanoa is a shared Pasifika custom of inclusive, participatory dialogue.

Ministers on the attendance list included John Salong from Vanuatu, Polycarp Paea from the Soloman Islands, Steve Victor from Palau, Bremity Lackjohn from the Marshall Islands, Simon Kilepa from Papua New Guinea, Tokaibure Rabaua from Kiribati, Simon Watts from New Zealand and Niue Prime Minister Dalton Tagelegi.

"Climate change affects everyone, but not everyone equally – as always it is the most vulnerable that bear the most weight of harmful climate impacts," Uniting Church Synod of NSW & ACT Moderator Rev. Mata Havea Hiliau said.

The gathering took place at Blacktown Regional Uniting Church.

It's not the first time Rev. Mata Havea Hiliau has organised similar assemblies with world leaders and the climate crisis in mind.

Leaders, alongside Minister Bowen, NSW Minister for Climate Change and Energy Penny Sharpe joined Pacific Islands politicians at Olympic Park with the same message in 2023.

Speaking then, Rev. Mata Havea Hiliau, said Pasifika people, First Nations peoples and western Sydney communities would feel the impact of climate change harder than others.

"And to our friends across the Pacific watching their homes, their lands, their culture seemingly destined for the bottom of the ocean – we see your struggles, we stand with you, we will campaign with you," she said in 2023, according to the South Sydney Herald.

More recently, at a meeting in February with Minister Bowen, Uniting Church leaders called on the Government and both sides of politics, to "act more boldly" in responding to the climate crisis, and its intersection with cost of living.

On Thursday Rev. Hiliau said: "Pacific diaspora voices in Australia have not played a role in decision-making around climate solutions but we can be a powerful force to drive the climate solutions in Australia being called for by our Pacific family."

"We just need to get organised.

"We are a part of a church that has 350 congregations across NSW and ACT and are connected to a church with a national footprint."

In September, more than 150 researchers, policymakers and community leaders attended an inaugural Research Symposium on Loss and Damage in Pacific Small Island Developing States in Savusavu, Fiji.

The Gathering was described by international member-based development organisation Pacific Community (SPC), formerly South Pacific Commission, as an opportunity for communities, policymakers, climate negotiators and organisations to build their evidence-base of data "to support loss and damage planning processes and requests for access to financing under multilateral climate mechanisms".