Latest / The Front / Chris Bowen’s climate consolation prize

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Chris Bowen’s climate consolation prize · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, July one, twenty twenty six. First home buyers
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  Speaker 1: risk ending up in negative equity if house prices tumble,
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  Speaker 1: and an analysis by The Australian shows auction clearance rates
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  Speaker 1: in regions popular among new property investors are dropping faster
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  Speaker 1: than in capital cities. Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy says
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  Speaker 1: a broken system has caused massive cost blowouts in his
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  Speaker 1: own department. In an address to the National Press Club
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  Speaker 1: this week, he'll sprook the ability of the government's new
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  Speaker 1: procurement scheme to get things under control. Post stories alive
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  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au. Australians
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  Speaker 1: want action on climate change, just not too fast. That's
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  Speaker 1: the take from Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen,
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  Speaker 1: who's spoken exclusively to The Australian ahead of a huge
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  Speaker 1: global climate summit where he's promising Australia will reject any
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  Speaker 1: radical policy changes. That's today's episode. Every year, a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of nations get together in a different location to make
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  Speaker 1: a plan to save the planet. It's called the Coalition
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  Speaker 1: of the Parties. Or COP and it's the United Nations
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  Speaker 1: Annual Climate Change Conference. This year, Australia's Climate Change and
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  Speaker 1: Energy Minister, Chris Bowen really wanted the seat at the
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  Speaker 1: head of the table, but it wasn't to be.
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  Speaker 2: Top thirty one. The rights will instead be given to Turkey.
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  Speaker 2: After ongoing business debates between both countries for more than
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  Speaker 2: a year now, Turkey's president refused to back down on
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  Speaker 2: his beard despite Australia having the most support.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Brown is the Australian's chief political correspondent and Greg Crishen,
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  Speaker 1: the Climate Change and Energy Minister, really fought for Australia
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  Speaker 1: to host the upcoming COP thirty one summit, which will
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  Speaker 1: take place in November. We ultimately lost the hosting gig
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  Speaker 1: to Turkey. But Bowen himself has come out of that
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  Speaker 1: with the title of President of Negotiations for COP thirty one.
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  Speaker 1: What does that actually mean in practice.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's the consolation prize where I think you do
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  Speaker 3: a lot of the work, but you don't get you
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  Speaker 3: don't get on the podium at the end. So his
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  Speaker 3: job fundamentally is to lead the negotiations of all the
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  Speaker 3: countries that are signed up to Paris to see what
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  Speaker 3: they can actually gain consensus on so they can move
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  Speaker 3: forward on taking more action on climate change. He's come
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  Speaker 3: under a lot of pressure for it, given that we're
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  Speaker 3: facing troubles here at home obviously with fuel security and
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  Speaker 3: the cost of living crisis, but he's firmly talking up
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  Speaker 3: that him doing this role as very much in Australia's
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  Speaker 3: national interests.
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  Speaker 1: Greek spoke with Chris Bowen at Parliament House. You'll hear
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  Speaker 1: snippets of audio from that interview throughout this episode.
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  Speaker 4: I think the majority of Australia the leaving climate change
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  Speaker 4: and the leaving taking action on it. But I think
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  Speaker 4: action and plate change is an essential tipping of the
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  Speaker 4: ticket to be regarded as a serious party of government
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  Speaker 4: in Australian twenty twenty sis.
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  Speaker 1: Bowen is in charge of the clean energy transition, but
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  Speaker 1: our economy is still very much reliant on fossil fuels.
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  Speaker 3: So he's really used this opportunity to talk up the
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  Speaker 3: government's efforts that we have massively diversified where we're by
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  Speaker 3: fuel and crude oil from. So previously we were by
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  Speaker 3: ninety percent of our fuel from Asia and they were
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  Speaker 3: buying their crude oil from the Middle East largely that
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  Speaker 3: was coming through the strata formals, so there was obviously
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  Speaker 3: problems potentially down the road for Australia when this war started.
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  Speaker 3: But he talks about some of the government actions, including
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  Speaker 3: through underwriting fuel cargoes that has helped Australia buy fuel
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  Speaker 3: from places like Argentina, Algeria, the United States, really diversify
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  Speaker 3: where we're getting our petrol and diesel and jet fuel from.
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  Speaker 3: So his argument is that this helps promote Australia's existing
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  Speaker 3: agenda and gives it more influence. And he actually makes
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  Speaker 3: the point that the Canadian President Mark Karney was in
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  Speaker 3: Federal Parliament earlier this year and he really talked up
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  Speaker 3: the need for active middle powers to play a graative
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  Speaker 3: role in international diplomacy. Obviously, this is in relation to
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump going a bit off the script typically now.
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  Speaker 3: Chris Bowen links it back to Mark Carney's speech in
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  Speaker 3: Parliament and says this is an example of Australia being
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  Speaker 3: an active middle power.
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  Speaker 5: The world will always.
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  Speaker 3: Be driven by great powers, but it can also be
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  Speaker 3: shaped by middle powers that trust each other and act
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  Speaker 3: with speed and purpose. So he's very much of the
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  Speaker 3: view that this helps Australia push out interests. He says
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  Speaker 3: it's actually in Australia's economic interest as well.
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  Speaker 4: This is Australia acting as a middle power, like stepping
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  Speaker 4: up to rather negotiations.
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  Speaker 6: That's middle power times. He has absolute.
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  Speaker 3: Best now as far as the substantive movements forward. He's
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  Speaker 3: not talking this up as being a massive cop when
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  Speaker 3: it will be held in Turkey Lady this year. In fact,
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  Speaker 3: he says he's not expecting any massive change. He's expecting
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  Speaker 3: a step in the right direction.
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  Speaker 4: It's not a cock whether you should expect either massive
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  Speaker 4: massive breakthroughs or massive massive setbacks.
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  Speaker 6: It's a cock where I think I'm confident with the
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  Speaker 6: new making progress.
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  Speaker 3: He points out that there have been some international climate
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  Speaker 3: change conferences like Copenhagen back when Kevin Rudd was Prime
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  Speaker 3: Minister that were disasters amounted to nothing, and there've been
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  Speaker 3: others like Paris that led to the Paris Agreement. He
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  Speaker 3: thinks this will be a more iterative process. He says
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  Speaker 3: there is growing momentum for some sort of an agreement
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  Speaker 3: on electrification more energy from electricity, and he's ruling out
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  Speaker 3: pushing or being part of any deal that will limit
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  Speaker 3: coal and gas exports, which I think will be one
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  Speaker 3: one thing Australian industry would be happy about.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that's a reaction to some of the
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  Speaker 1: labor policies that have been introduced recently that haven't been
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  Speaker 1: received particularly well by business and by the mining sectors.
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  Speaker 3: This has been one that they've been very careful on
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  Speaker 3: for quite a few years, and it's always one that
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  Speaker 3: comes up at COP conferences because they're quite a number
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  Speaker 3: of countries that don't have big fossil fuel industries that
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  Speaker 3: think that this is a no brainer. But he's making
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  Speaker 3: very clear that his position as the top negotiator, it's
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  Speaker 3: not even on the agenda for this COP. This was
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  Speaker 3: a key issue for why Anthony Albanesi even became Prime
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  Speaker 3: Minister in twenty twenty two because Bill Shorten, if you remember,
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  Speaker 3: got in all sorts of trouble over what to do
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  Speaker 3: about the Adani Mine, whether labors supported it, whether they'd
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  Speaker 3: moved to effectively block it, that sort of thing. So
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  Speaker 3: Anthony Albanesi has really made a point in saying that
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  Speaker 3: coal exports, fossil fuel exports are separate from domestic emissions
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  Speaker 3: and Australia will not do anything to limit those exports.
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  Speaker 3: That's a matter for international demand, and that's been a
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  Speaker 3: consistent position that the Albanese government has pushed overseas as well.
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  Speaker 3: They haven't signed up to anything that would limit fossil
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  Speaker 3: fuel exports. So politically it's a no brainer. And Chris
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  Speaker 3: Balen is making the point that his personal views will
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  Speaker 3: remain even when he's doing a job that's a bit broader.
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  Speaker 1: Why if he didn't feel or doesn't feel that Cop
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  Speaker 1: thirty one would move the dial in a major way?
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  Speaker 1: Did he fight so hard for Australia to host it?
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  Speaker 3: Do you think the other side of the coin is
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  Speaker 3: that you could have We have seen momentum go backwards.
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  Speaker 3: So his point will be that under his leadership in negotiations,
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  Speaker 3: Australia is playing its part in the trajectory moving forward. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: it's not going to be a major step forward, as
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  Speaker 3: he says, but the trend will continue that the world
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  Speaker 3: will at least commit to whether they're actually doing it
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  Speaker 3: or others another thing altogether, but the world will actually
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  Speaker 3: commit to taking greater action on climate change.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up Lessons from Farah on climate policy. A by
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  Speaker 1: election happened in the electorate of FARRR in May, following
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  Speaker 1: the departure after twenty five years of former Liberal leader
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  Speaker 1: Susan Lee that was ultimately won by the One Nation
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  Speaker 1: candidate David Valley, that was hotly contested by the Teel
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  Speaker 1: Independent Michelle Milthorpe. What does Chris Bowen say about the
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  Speaker 1: appetite for climate policy in the electorate, particularly following that
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  Speaker 1: by election.
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  Speaker 3: We had an interesting discussion in the interview about the
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  Speaker 3: politics of climate change given the rise of One Nation.
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  Speaker 3: So obviously the coalition walked away from net zero at
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  Speaker 3: the end of last year.
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  Speaker 7: Mission Our emission's reduction goals will never come at the
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  Speaker 7: expense of Australian families and this is the principle that
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  Speaker 7: will guide every decision we take.
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  Speaker 3: One Nation's position is even more opposed to any action
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  Speaker 3: on emission's production whatsoever. They actually want to build new
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  Speaker 3: cold fire power stations and use taxpayers support to do that.
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  Speaker 5: One Nation cares and the energy policy we will implement
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  Speaker 5: works only in the national interest. Our energy policy puts
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  Speaker 5: our country in its people first. We will not allow
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  Speaker 5: Australia to be burned. But on the altar of climate
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  Speaker 5: change and netsero being driven by un zalots wanting to
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  Speaker 5: control everything into poverty.
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  Speaker 3: But Chris Bold denies that the rise of one Nation
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  Speaker 3: has anything to do with the community anxiety of taking
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  Speaker 3: action on climate change. He says that the evidence shows
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  Speaker 3: that the coalition walking away from net zero has only
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  Speaker 3: been bad for them.
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  Speaker 6: What has been the result? I feel sensing away from
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  Speaker 6: them in power?
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  Speaker 2: You know?
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  Speaker 6: Did that work for them? So?
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  Speaker 4: And I would argue by actions, the outer suburbs and
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  Speaker 4: regions are getting on with it, and yes it's allowed debate,
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  Speaker 4: but quiet as already be on it.
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  Speaker 3: He says that having good credentials to take action on
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  Speaker 3: climate change is still a big factor Australians want and
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  Speaker 3: it's a necessary factor. And being a party of government.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think we'll see any Liberals lining up for
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  Speaker 1: a job at the next COP summit if it all
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  Speaker 1: goes to plan for Chris.
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  Speaker 3: Bowen somehow, I don't think that Liberals or Nationals lining
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  Speaker 3: up at Copple wanting to have anything to do with
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  Speaker 3: the COP summit is going to be part of the script.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Brown, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Kristen.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Brown is The Australian's chief political correspondent. You can
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  Speaker 1: read all the latest from Parliament right now at the
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au