Chris Bowen tells global leaders Australia is leading the clean energy revolution
Chris Bowen has promoted Australia’s ambitious 62 to 70 per cent emissions reduction target, saying the nation is leading the clean energy revolution.
Chris Bowen has taken aim at climate change denialism on the global stage as he promoted Australia’s 62-70 per cent 2035 emissions reduction in New York, saying it would usher in a “revolution” in both power generation and consumption.
Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister sounded the alarm on new forms of denialism while attending Climate Week in New York – the world’s largest annual climate event held in partnership with the United Nations General Assembly – where he was accompanied by ambassador Kevin Rudd along with climate advocates from across the world, business figures and global leaders.
Addressing the summit, Mr Bowen said Australia’s new climate target was “ambitious but achievable” and took aim at those opposed to action, declaring that “climate denial is still with us – but it takes new forms.”
He said the new manifestations of climate denial included what he dubbed “all too hardism,” meaning the sense that “this is all too hard.”
The second form was the sentiment that “no-one else is doing enough – why should we do this when the rest of the world isn’t moving?”
Mr Bowen rejected these approaches, arguing that the world was undertaking the energy transition at a “very rapid pace” and that renewables would overtake coal as the largest global energy source “sometime this calendar year.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at the High-Level Session on Renewable Energy Abundance convened by Fortescue and hosted by founder Andrew Forrest, said the momentum towards clean energy needed to be backed by governments and industry across borders and continents.
She said the transition was critical to underpinning energy security, referencing the shift by Europe to dramatically diversify its supply since the war in Ukraine left it exposed for its over reliance on Russian gas, oil and coal.
“We massively invested in renewable energy,” she said. “Three and a half years on, today almost half of Europe’s power comes from renewables. Solar and wind are our fastest growing sources of energy.”
Ms von der Leyen said that in 2024 almost two trillion dollars was invested world wide in clean energy – twice the investment that had gone into fossil fuels – while 90 per cent of new renewables projects were now generating power more cheaply than fossil fuels.
“The energy transition should be at the heart of our international agenda,” she said. “Only if the benefits are truly global can we speak of a new age of renewable abundance.”
Mr Bowen said there was a positive story to tell about renewables because individuals were “being put in charge for the first time.”
While it was previously the case that consumers had no choice but to pay energy bills this was “rapidly changing – certainly in my country. A country with the highest rooftop solar penetration in the world.”
Mr Bowen also said that one thousand Australian households a day were installing batteries. “That means they are now a power plant,” he said. “With a solar panel on their roof and a battery in their garage, they can decide what to do with their energy. And they can provide energy to the grid when prices are high and instead of getting an energy bill, if they choose, get an energy rebate.”
“This is a remarkable opportunity to transform consumers into prosumers,” he said. “Producers and consumers of energy all at the same time. And this is part of the story we can tell. Yes, there are challenges and headwinds and delays, but there are remarkable opportunities … each and every day a revolution being undertaken in our suburbs and our regions.”
Dr Forrest also took a jab at the United States, saying that it was a “sovereign state pushing against renewable energy (and) building up old energy, I think, to the detriment of the American people.”
He strongly backed Australia’s bid to host the COP31 climate summit in Adelaide which is in competition with Turkey’s rival bid, arguing it would draw attention to the Pacific.
“Australia is in the middle of the Pacific,” Dr Forrest said. “All those Pacific Island nations are all our brothers and sisters. They’re all our sovereign family. And they are the most threatened in terms of climate change.”
He argued Australian leadership would help restore the faith of young people across the globe in the UN climate change conference, noting that COP29 in Azerbaijan had taken place in a petrostate.
“You could feel the disbelief in the youth around the world,” he said. “What I believe we will see in a Pacific COP held in Australia is the reinvigoration of the global youth in belief that this world can save itself.”
“A Pacific COP will bring back your heart, it will bring back your hope, it will bring back your faith that we, humanity, can end the spectre of global warming.”
Speaking to the High-Level Session on Renewable Abundance, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis warned that a failure to seize the opportunity of renewable energy could be “catastrophic.”
He said it was central to reframe the global debate to ensure the replacement of fossil fuels with renewables was seen as a chance to “expand our possibilities, not limit them.”
Mr Davis said the renewables revolution should be seen as a prerequisite for future prosperity but warned the current global debate needed to evolve because it had been focused “too narrowly on blame.”
“Zero sum moralising … is counter-productive in a world in which citizens of even the wealthiest nations fear that their social contract is broken and rising costs and diminishing opportunities are fuelling what I call political rage,” he said.
“If calls for climate justice are only demands for accountability for past wrongs we’ll find it more difficult to create a more just future.”
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