Adelaide’s COP31 bid fails as Australia concedes climate summit to Turkey
Premier Peter Malinauskas has issued a stern challenge to the federal government after Adelaide was left high and dry in an “obscene” call for the COP31 host.
Premier Peter Malinauskas wants to bid for another global climate change conference, despite spending millions of dollars on Adelaide’s failed COP 31 bid in a process he branded “obscene”.
In an extraordinary deal revealed on Thursday, Australia ceded hosting rights for next November’s United Nations summit to Turkey, in return for Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen becoming COP president for negotiations.
Explaining the deal, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there would be a “pre-COP meeting” in the Pacific, ahead of the main event in Turkey, rather than Adelaide.
But Mr Malinauskas challenged the federal government to bid for another COP with Adelaide as the host city, despite the state having already spent $3.8m fruitlessly preparing for next year’s summit.
“Turkey has won the rights for next year’s COP and a notable part of their position was informed by their withdrawal from the Glasgow bid. That option is now available to the federal government and they should treat it seriously,” he said.
Mr Malinauskas said he was “disappointed that, nationally, the Australian government couldn’t win the rights” in a “frankly, obscene” international process, arguing a majority of countries had preferred Adelaide as the host city.
But Liberal government accountability spokesman Ben Hood warned against another COP bid, saying Labor had already blown $500m on a “hydrogen pipe dream” and almost $4m of taxpayer funds had now vanished as the state headed for a $50bn debt.
The influential nurses union pointedly said the government had prioritised investments like the COP bid but “sustained and strategic” health workforce investment was “essential to ensuring the long term health and wellbeing of the SA community”.
South Australian Independent Retailers chief Colin Shearing urged the Premier to focus on energy and other business costs ahead of another bid for “a big think tank”, highlighting the urgency of tackling the perilous situation being endured by Jetty Rd traders at Glenelg.
The Institute of Public Affairs, a free market think tank, said pursuing another COP conference was “one big cop-out to South Australians who want their government focused on getting power prices down urgently, rather than gallivanting with unelected international bureaucrats”.
But Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith backed the Premier’s challenge for another shot as host city, saying Adelaide and South Australia had “long been at the forefront of environmental progress”
Australian Hotels Association SA branch chief executive officer Anna Moeller said the COP bid had delivered a net benefit, by putting a spotlight on the state, while she was not aware of members being substantially out of pocket and large accommodation providers would quickly fill any spots that had been set aside.
An Adelaide Oval spokesman said held booking dates would now be released “and we’re confident these will quickly fill”.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation SA branch chief executive officer Elizabeth Dabars, whose union is in a pay dispute with the government, said: “While the government has prioritised investments including the COP bid, we believe that sustained and strategic investment in health workforce, particularly nursing and midwifery, is essential to ensuring the long-term health and wellbeing of the SA community.”
IPA deputy executive director Daniel Wild, a defeated Liberal candidate in the northern Adelaide seat of Spence at May’s federal election, said: “The last thing our state needs is a bunch of rich elites, flying in on their private planes, telling South Australians they need to shut down more of their manufacturing industry and power supply.
“What the Premier should be doing is inviting the leaders in proven, affordable and reliable baseload power generation – coal, gas and nuclear – to make South Australia the nation’s powerhouse.”
Mr Bowen said details were being thrashed out for a “pre-COP hosted in the Pacific” as well as a “pledging event for the Pacific Resilience Fund, which is so important to us”.
“Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all, but we can’t have it all,” Mr Bowen told reporters from the COP30 Summit in Brazil.
“This process works on consensus.”
Spearheaded by Mr Malinauskas, South Australia had been lobbying to host COP31, leaving state taxpayers having spent millions of dollars planning for the climate change summit.
But senior federal government sources conceded on Wednesday that it was “less likely” that Adelaide would play host to more than 50,000 delegates amid the diplomatic standoff.
If the deadlock had remained unresolved the summit automatically would have moved to the UN’s climate headquarters in Bonn, Germany.
Earlier, with Adelaide’s bid looking doomed, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed a compromise “to ensure that the Pacific benefited” was still a possibility.
This, he said, might include potentially hosting a “leaders meeting” in the Pacific or support for the financing of the Pacific Resilience Facility that provides climate-related grants.
Senior Australian officials said any Pacific leaders meeting would not be held in Adelaide but diplomats were working to “salvage” a compromise.
Speaking in Perth on Tuesday, Mr Albanese said Australia had “worked hard” for its bid but would not veto Turkey if it was successful.
“We will prioritise making sure that the Pacific’s interests are looked after,” he said at the time.
“But this is a difficult situation because of the rules and the way that they operate.”
He said there was “substantial support for the bid by Australia and the Pacific”.
“But the way that the system works is that if there is no agreement and there’s more than one candidate, it goes to Bonn.
“There is considerable concern, not just from the Pacific, but internationally as well, that that will not send a good signal about the unity that’s needed for the world to act on climate.
“And if Australia is not chosen, if Turkey is chosen, we wouldn’t seek to veto that.
“What we would seek to do is to ensure that the Pacific benefited from that, through measures, potentially like a leaders meeting to be held in the Pacific, by support for the financing, joining Australia with financing the Pacific Resilience Facility.
“That’s so important, by any COP wherever it’s held.”
Mr Albanese said he was “continuing to engage with Turkey”, but was also engaging with other countries about COP31 and planned to work through the issue in “coming days”, indicating he would press the Turkish President on the issue at the G20 summit in South Africa at the end of the week.
“We want it to be resolved in the interests of the collective action on climate change,” he said.
In a statement on Wednesday night, a federal government spokeswoman said: “Australia has been clear it respects the multilateral system.
“If Turkey were chosen, we wouldn’t block their bid.
“But Turkey hasn’t been chosen. Australia has the overwhelming support of our peers.
“Turkey shouldn’t block us, just as we wouldn’t block them if the situation were reversed.
“But of course we will continue to negotiate with Turkey in good faith for an outcome in the best interests of the Pacific and our national interest.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the ABC on Wednesday that the government was “trying to find the best way through”.
“We have put our best foot forward and put a good case, the world is overwhelmingly supporting us, but we need to resolve this one way or another,” he said.
The state government was approached for comment.
The Sunday Mail reported over the weekend that Premier Peter Malinauskas had moved to inoculate against the bid failing, and that the global spotlight on the state as a result of the bid had already delivered $3.1bn worth of potential future business events.
“We already have proven our mettle at attracting major international business events, however our candidacy for COP is helping drive this even further,” he said.
He had previously said he would not attend COP30 in Brazil, due to being locked in negotiations for the sale of Bedford Group.
- with Newswire
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Originally published as Adelaide’s COP31 bid fails as Australia concedes climate summit to Turkey
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