Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ)
It’s been a year of devastating floods and fires around the world and has served as a stark reminder of the increasing ravages of climate change.
Globally, however, progress to limit emissions is faltering, with economic pressures, international conflicts, the rise of populism and a weakening of will slowing global cooperation.
Australia this year is at the centre of international climate talks. We are co-hosting with Turkey the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), held in November, with a pre-COP to held in Fiji and Tuvalu early in October.
Chris Bowen is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and President for Negotiations for the COP, and he joined us today to discuss climate issues domestically and abroad.
Bowen says COP preparations “are going well”.
We have responsibility for the negotiations, which do need consensus. So I need 194 countries signing onto things to make them a reality. So that is the degree of difficulty. Every COP is difficult.
It will be a very difficult undertaking, and it’s in the context of a very complicated geopolitical situation and the world energy crisis. But also that world energy crisis is providing, frankly, momentum behind things like electrification and renewable energy.
Bowen fights back against criticisms of the lack of foreign leaders set to go to the pre-COP in Fiji and Tuvalu:
Let’s just be clear, the pre-COP is not normally a leader level event. You know, this idea that pre-COPs are a failure unless you have the UN General Assembly there is just, just really out of keeping with all reality. This is the first Pre-COP that any leader will attend physically. We’ve done that with the Pacific to say, well, let us try and make this an event where we can get some focus on the Pacific issues by making it, to a small degree, a leader-level event for the first time.
Tuvalu is a very small country. It’s the least visited country in the world […] so bringing anybody to Tuvalu is a big deal. And as the President of Palau said to me a couple of weeks ago, if you get one leader to pre-COP, that’s a major achievement, there’s one more than we’ve ever had before. So we will have some prime ministers and presidents at pre-COP. We’ll also have the heads of the Asian Development Bank, the Grand Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, which is absolutely key.
On Australia’s climate targets – a reduction of emissions of 43% below 2005 levels and having 82% renewables by 2030 – Bowen is confident is we’ll meet both:
I do think we can meet them. I’m not saying it’s inevitable, I’m not saying we don’t have more work to do. It’s always a challenge but I am pleased with the progress we’re making. If you look at the two figures you mentioned, 82% renewables, it was 33% when we came to office, it is effectively 50% now.
I know it’s fashionable in the media to say it’s impossible. It is not impossible. Is it easy? No. But can we get there if we keep going? I believe that we can, yes.
On power prices, while not committing to a fall, Bowen says there has been good progress on reducing wholesale prices:
So it takes time to roll out the renewables. It takes time for that to impact. It’s impacting on wholesale prices more and more, particularly batteries. Again, I know people might say you talk about batteries a lot. I do, because they’re very important, but the benefit of batteries is that they’re introducing more of that cheap renewable energy at night and at night is when we have the most pressure on prices and that’s gonna flow through to pricing more broadly and to retail prices.
Wholesale is about 40% of the bill and when wholesale prices come down, it takes time to reflect on next year’s retail bills. I think we’re going to continue to see that sort of progress.
I’m not making political promises, but I am observing that we are seeing good progress which will be reflected in bills.
On rural communities’ views on renewables, Bowen acknowledges there is opposition but says he sees support too:
There is opposition to large-scale renewables, particularly wind, but also solar. Absolutely there is, but there’s also support. And the opposition tends to get a lot of attention, for reasons I understand, but when you’ve got someone who is in a community and they just quietly support a project and they think ‘that’s a good idea’, they’re not putting in an objection, that doesn’t get the attention.
Do I get protests saying we don’t want this? Absolutely I do. Do I also get stopped by people who say, keep going, this is great, we’re all for it? Yes.
So my view is where you have legitimate community concerns about amenity, about impacts on roads, whatever it might be, that is very legitimate. It must be properly dealt with by the planning system, locals must have their say. But you also get people hundreds of kilometres away saying, well this is communism […] I’m sorry, that’s not something that the planning system needs to be bogged down in.
Bowen says comments made by Pauline Hanson and One Nation show she isn’t serious about taking the temperature down:
I mean this is a week where Pauline Hanson has claimed of being unfairly attacked. She’s taken offence at comments that the prime minister and treasurer have made and said, we need to take the temperature down. The leader of One Nation was literally nailing a coffin with the words ‘net-zero’ on it. Is that respectful debate? Barnaby Joyce stood up at a rally in Wollongong and said send your bullets to Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese. Is that appropriate? Is that taking the temperature down? So you know if we’re going to have the debate about respectful conversations, One Nation might like to start.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/09/09/politics-with-michelle-grattan-chris-bowen-on-co-hosting-cop-and-australias-renewables-target/