Forget soaring bills, meet our Minister for UN Summits, Chris Bowen
The deal brokered in Brazil for Bowen to become president of Turkey’s UN COP31 summit is unprecedented and politically fraught for Anthony Albanese.
Bowen will not step down as the Prime Minister’s Climate Change and Energy Minister, meaning he remains in cabinet and a member of the government’s National Security Committee. Junior ministers will fill the void in leading the government’s response to one of the nation’s great challenges.
After surrendering Australia’s ambition to host next year’s climate summit in Adelaide and copping an embarrassing backdown to Turkey, which had virtually no global support to host COP31, the Albanese government should have exited the process without carrying ongoing risks in navigating toxic global climate politics.
Critically, the bizarre COP31 deal threatens to diminish Labor’s commitment to fix Australia’s energy crisis.
Bowen’s expected elevation as COP31 president – for a summit held halfway across the world – will likely include a heavy international travel schedule and take him away from his day job.
The renewables zealot, who failed to deliver on Labor’s 2022 election pledge of slashing power bills by $275 from 2025, is struggling to deliver on Labor’s big energy and climate change promises.
The government faces an uphill battle to hit key 2030 targets, including lifting renewables in the grid to 82 per cent and cutting emissions by 43 per cent. Ahead of the UN General Assembly in September, the government doubled down on its lofty ambitions and unveiled a 2035 emissions reduction target pledging to lower emissions by 62-70 per cent below 2005 levels.
As Albanese flies out to South Africa for the G20 summit, Australians would be fair to think the government is more interested in global affairs than domestic concerns about the cost-of-living crisis, surging power bills, mass immigration and housing shortages. Although prime ministers have to attend key summits, Bowen taking on the UN COP31 presidency will test the patience of voters.
Amid rising antipathy around Albanese’s cabinet table to co-hosting the COP31 summit with Pacific nations in Adelaide next year, Bowen refused to give up his dream of landing the annual UN climate extravaganza, which typically carries a price tag in excess of $250m.
As reported in The Australian, it became clear in late August that Turkey would not step-aside and hand the event to Australia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – under pressure from his climate activist wife Emine – had previously done a deal with Boris Johnson allowing the UK to host the 2021 COP26 summit in Glasgow. Bowen’s desperation to strike a late deal peaked on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, when he spoke directly with Mrs Erdogan in New York. The Erdogans could not be convinced.
Bowen’s global climate frolic poses great risks for Albanese, who, despite criticising Scott Morrison, has never attended a COP summit as Prime Minister.
If Bowen becomes chief negotiator for next year’s COP, the Albanese government could carry the can for negotiations going pear-shaped, moving too radically or failing to deliver outcomes. Turkey, which will have its own COP president in charge of hosting the summit, effectively won’t need to take full responsibility if COP31 is a fizzer.
The global climate fraternity has been weakened by the absence of the US after Donald Trump rejected climate change as the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”. With the US disinterested and China and India not bothering much about emissions reduction, the credibility of COP is under serious threat.
Since the 2022 election, Pacific leaders have held countless meetings with Australian officials who reassured them that Albanese and Bowen had a strong chance of securing the COP31 summit. They are now being told their nations, which are being wooed by Beijing, will get some pre-events before the main show in Turkey. Those pre-events are expected to be funded by the Albanese government.
The Coalition will have a field day over the next year accusing Bowen of gallivanting around the world and being more concerned about global climate change than domestic energy security and power bills.
Bowen will need to consider conducting more international meetings via Zoom to avoid the inevitable attack that his overseas flights are driving up emissions.
Opposition climate change and energy spokesman Dan Tehan told The Australian: “The Albanese government needs to be upfront with the Australian people and detail what the cost will be for this Chris Bowen vanity project.
“One thing is clear, the last thing Chris Bowen will be focused on next year is energy affordability when it should be his number one priority. Sadly for Australian households and businesses he will be travelling the world while energy bills back home continue to rise.”
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