Australia’s interests first at G20 and COP26, says Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison says he will put Australia’s ‘interests first’ and resist pushes to phase out coal production and power generation.

Scott Morrison arrives in Rome on Friday for the G20 leaders’ summit. Picture: Adam Taylor

Scott Morrison says he will put Australia’s “interests first” and resist pushes to phase out coal production and power generation at the G20 leaders’ summit and UN climate change conference, declaring he would not engage in “any mandates or bans”.

India, China, Russia and other resource nations and developing economies were likely to also resist attempts to impose timelines on the phasing out of coal.

Speaking in Rome, the Prime Minister said “every time you come to these events there’s all sorts of bits of paper that’s flying around well before”.

“I’m sure the final communique will be worked through over the next few days and Australia’s policy on these issues will be crystal clear and you can expect the Australian government, whether in Rome or Glasgow, will always put Australia’s interests first,” Mr Morrison said.

With British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressing concern that next week’s COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow could fail in its ambition, Mr Morrison said “it all depends on what your expectations are”.

“Australia’s taking steps forward, we’re taking strong steps forward. I think this is a good opportunity to align and discuss what our various plans are, and learn from each other,” he said.

With Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin snubbing both major summits, Mr Morrison said “no single country”, including Australia, could address climate change globally.

He said the government wanted to unlock global low-emissions technology solutions that could work in “China, India and Vietnam as they do in Australia, Europe and the United States”.

Mr Morrison said his Thursday night phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron had allowed them to “set out our keenness to find a way forward after the obvious disappointment” over the federal government’s cancellation of the Naval Group’s $90bn contract last month, following the announcement of the AUKUS military pact and nuclear submarine deal.

“I very much appreciate the fact that he reached out to have that personal call. We’ve started the way back, I think that’s a positive thing. Of course there will be candid conversations at the start as we deal with the issues as they presented.

“Australia and France have so many shared interests. Our interests are shared in the Indo-Pacific and the way you build back those relationships is you work together on the things that matter to us both.”

Referencing claims made by the French government about discussions over climate change and the phasing out of coal, Mr Morrison said “our policy is very clear, we’re not engaged in any mandates or bans”.

“It won’t be the Australian government policy. All countries are coming at this task from different places, their economies are different. Developing countries have different challenges to those in Europe and indeed Australia’s is very different as well.”