COP president in residence: Chris Bowen faces delay to climate summit
Chris Bowen’s international climate role has sparked a dramatic parliamentary showdown that forced the minister to abandon plans for a crucial April summit in Colombia.
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will not travel to Colombia in April for an international summit on the phasing-out of fossil fuels – despite being the COP31 negotiations president – in the face of heated pressure from the Coalition over the potential for his new international role to interfere with his domestic responsibilities.
Mr Bowen’s short-term grounding came after the Labor frontbencher failed to say in question time how many sitting days of parliament he would miss and how much in taxpayer funds would be spent on his international travel now he is the world’s senior climate change negotiator.
The key climate event in April will be co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, and was agreed to after 24 countries – including Australia – launched a joint statement on the weekend during this year’s COP summit in Brazil committing to phasing out fossil fuels.
Soon after Sussan Ley opened question time with a pointed attack on Mr Bowen and his acceptance of the job as COP negotiations president – and less than 72 hours after he signed the fossil fuel declaration – the Prime Minister’s office told The Australian the Climate Change Minister would not be flying to Colombia personally for the summit.
It followed Mr Bowen hitting back at the Opposition Leader and the yells and jeers of her Coalition colleagues that the suggestion the negotiations president was a full-time job that would undermine his ministerial responsibilities was “a complete invention” and “a fantasy”.
“You can say it as many times as you like; it doesn’t make it true,” he said. “I must correct the misperception both the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow (energy) minister are perpetuating. The role of the president is not a full-time position. The president of the first COP I went to was the minister who continued in his role in the Egyptian cabinet while being president of the COP.”
As part of his defence, Mr Bowen echoed comments by Anthony Albanese on Monday, invoking Labor’s support of former Liberal finance minister Mathias Cormann to become the new OECD president. “I am even old enough to remember … the Labor Party and government supporting the employment of Malcolm Fraser as the secretary-general of the Commonwealth because if you are a serious party of government you want your country to do well whether in opposition or in government,” he said.
Despite this, Mr Bowen was unable to say how many days of parliament he would miss as part of his new role, as Ms Ley and opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan asked on multiple occasions for him to clarify the matter.
Liberal frontbenchers also asked Mr Bowen to tell Australians how much the taxpayer would be hit for the travel arrangements and other resourcing needed to support his COP negotiations presidency. Mr Bowen – who will not be remunerated for the presidency role – was unable to answer either question.
The Coalition’s attack on Mr Bowen led to many frontbenchers being reprimanded by speaker Milton Dick, who demanded MPs not refer to Mr Bowen as a “part-time minister, full-time president” – a ruling that the Coalition fought against after question time.
Mr Tehan was one of several MPs kicked out for his ongoing interjections, giving the opposition energy spokesman the opportunity to speak with former Liberal speaker of the house and unexpected visitor to parliament on Tuesday, Bronwyn Bishop, on his way out.
The announcement that Mr Bowen would be given the role of the negotiations president last week followed Australia failing in its bid to host COP, which will be held by Turkey at the end of next year. Mr Bowen’s decision to sign up to the Belem Declaration on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels along with 23 other countries was welcomed by green groups. The Smart Energy Council’s senior international fellow, Thom Woodroofe, declaring it represented “the strongest statement Australia has ever made on phasing out fossil fuels”.
Faced with questions from the Liberals on Tuesday about businesses struggling with electricity bills under the government’s current energy plan, Mr Bowen said Labor’s commitment to renewable energy, backed by gas and storage, was helping bring energy prices down.
“This government have focused like a laser on energy prices and will continue to,” Mr Bowen said. “I am pleased to inform the House that 136,999 Australian households and businesses have installed a cheaper home battery with 2.9GWh worth of storage. All this is practical action. And the good news is … that it reduces bills and improves reliability and reduces emissions.
“I’m happy to have a debate about it and in fact I welcome it because this side of the House has a plan to help energy prices, while those opposite announced a plan during the break to push prices up because we know abandoning net zero will push prices up.”
The net zero stoush within the Coalition has been one of the key pressure points on Ms Ley’s leadership over recent weeks, with concerns from moderates over the move to abandon the target.
Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean, who attended the COP summit last week, said Mr Bowen was “absolutely” the best person for the job of negotiations president, but did not say whether he believed the job would take much of the minister’s time.
Mr Kean backed Mr Bowen’s comments on renewables being the answer to achieving cheaper energy, declaring “anything that stops that will put upwards pressure on prices”.
But asked when electricity prices would stop going up, Mr Kean would not say, declaring instead bills would go down “when we get on with the job of rolling out renewables at scale”. “This is a transitionary period that we’re going through,” he told Sky News. “We’ll be going through it for the next period of time, and what we know is in that transition we need to replace old technology, which is at end of life, with the cheapest form of new technology, and that’s renewables.
On the outcome of COP, Mr Kean said it would have been better if the US had participated in the event, suggesting Donald Trump had “waved the white flag” on tackling climate change.
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