Essay by Eric Worrall
Aussie climate and energy minister Chris Bowen demonstrating his international diplomacy skills.
‘Can’t have it all’: Australia abandons bid for COP31 climate summit
Published 20 November 2025 6:48pm
Updated 2m ago 6:55pm
By Naveen Razik
Presented by Wing KuangThe federal government has abruptly abandoned its bid to host the United Nations climate conference next year, conceding Turkiye will oversee the COP31. The Pacific countries and environmental activists have criticised the federal government’s failure to bring the event to Adelaide.
Australia has withdrawn from its bid to host the United Nations climate conference next year, after three years of competition with Turkiye.
Speaking from Belem where the COP30 is being held, climate change minister Chris Bowen has confirmed COP31 next year won’t be hosted in Adelaide, as Australia has hoped for.
“So obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all, but we can’t have it all.”
Mr Bowen says the withdrawal is in the best interest of Australia and also the summit.
According to the U-N rules, if Australia and Turkiye couldn’t reach a deal, Germany would have stepped in as the host of the United Nations climate organisation.
“This process works on consensus, and consensus means if someone objects to our bid, it would go to Bonn. That would mean 12 months with a lack of leadership, no COP president in place, no plan, that would be irresponsible for multilateralism and this challenge will… And don’t want that to happen.”
…
Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/cant-have-it-all-australia-abandons-bid-for-cop31-climate-summit/shmhxtcsh
You might think it astounding a federal minister would say something like that about a close ally in his quest to slay the carbon dragon, but we Aussies have come to expect no less from our climate minister. I’m sure he didn’t mean Germany is incapable of providing climate leadership. Perhaps the global warming in the Belém COP30 conference center is getting to our Chris.
On a positive note, I think Australia dodged a bullet having someone else host COP31. Let Turkey endure the pain of hosting all those activists.
All this Aussie green energy obsession is having real consequences. While the US economy powers ahead, Australia is dropping to the bottom of the league table;
‘Australia’s not high-growth’: ANZ boss hits Labor on productivity
Anthony Macdonald and Luke Kinsella
…
Australia’s productivity growth rate since 2019 was ranked second-last, above only Mexico, among the wealthy countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Economists have warned that low productivity growth was behind the rise in annual underlying inflation to 3 per cent, the top of the RBA’s target band, in the September quarter.
“I believe the productivity agenda debate we are watching in Australia, which is a collective effort, obviously fostered by the administration … is certainly the right thing to do,” Matos said.
RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser said at the UBS Australasia Conference this month that the economy was already “boxed in” by its lower supply capacity. “If we do find ourselves boxed in on the rail in this way, the only escape route is to grow the capacity of the economy,” he said.
Hauser said this would require an uptick in business investment, which had been flat for 18 months. As a share of the economy, investing by businesses in their own productivity is at mid-1990s levels.
…
https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/australia-s-not-high-growth-anz-s-matos-prods-labor-on-productivity-20251121-p5nhho
Everyone in official circles is talking around Australia’s flatlining economy like it is some kind of big mystery, but with skyrocketing green energy prices flagged as the number one business concern in a recent major survey, it’s not that big a puzzle why the Australian economy is the lame horse in the race.
“You might think it astounding a federal minister would say something like that about a close ally”
Completely muddled. There were two countries bidding, and with plans – Turkey and Australia. Turkey had more support (saves on air travel). Germany was not seeking to host COP, and had no plans in place. It is a default option that would happen if Australia were to be stupidly stubborn. No-one wants that.
Thanks for clarifying Nick – you’re saying Germany is incapable of providing climate leadership because they haven’t had enough time to prepare.
Given Energiewende was enacted in 2010, I would have thought 15 years of being a global climate leader would have been enough time to put something together on short notice, they could have shown off the achievements of Energiewende.
Green Depression: German Companies Fight For Survival – Insolvencies Reach Peak In October!
But I guess not.
Hosting is a process. The host needs to line up support, venues etc. That is all part of the application. So yes, 12 months ahead is short notice. But Turkey already has a plan presented and accepted. Why would Australia spite that?
Besides, Germany has already hosted 3 COPs.
Because political egos are at stake, same as with green energy and this whole climate farce.
Well, they didn’t. They did the mature thing.
At which point did their mature thinking kick in? How long have they been angling for this plum of a choice?
Sorry, not sorry. Just because they finally did the “right thing” doesn’t mean the outcome was the mature thing. A serial killer who quits after #20 hasn’t done the mature thing.
Admitting they LOST and cannot succeed.
Now we just have to hope they have the same honesty and maturity (as if) to get rid of Net-Zero and all the other trappings of the anti-CO2 idiocy.
If they’ve already hosted 3, they already have plans, and are adept at preparing. Your excuse is lame.
Yes, that’s always a big concern with climate alarmists.
chuckle 😉
Yes. Air travel costs and is boring.
Even Nick doesn’t care about air travel’s CO2.
It’s green moral license I think, in the minds of greens the righteousness of their quest to save the planet offsets any rules they break.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/05/04/study-greens-believe-they-have-a-moral-license-to-pollute/
And they are welcome to all the dysentery and typhoid they got from their sojourn among the lotos-eaters in Belem this year. I trust they all had fire insurance policies.
Boring?? So much time to take selfies, pretend you’re the opposite sex, post on Bluesky how evil Trump is, decry capitalism… there’s SO much to do!
It is certainly GREAT NEWS that Australia will not be wasting time and money on hosting such a pathetic scam junket !!
Nick,
Your skills in earning a CSIRO Medal should make you aware of what is required of a person competing in the arena of excellence (as all of us would do in the ideal world.)
It is therefore puzzling to see signs that you support the current Minister for Energy, Chris Bowen.
As a fair person, I have searched for actions by this minister that might indicate his excellence or aspirations for it. I have found only one positive attribute, “cunning”. I have not found evidence of this minister addressing the wants and needs of the majority of society, preferring a dictatorial approach. This minister must be able to see that the Australian economy is wrecked and is worsening rapidly. There are fewer and fewer Australians in the productive workforce to make the money to provide for those unable to earn, like the too young and too old. Government has to increase imposts to continue to provide customary support.
There have been substantial increases in the cost of electricity. Before year 2000 Australia attracted international investment and productive jobs because we had some of the cheapest and most reliable electricity globally, much of it from the easy, known technology of burning coal. We are now among the most expensive countries not just from the forms of this minister’s favoured generation, wind and solar, but from the miscellany of political taxes and charges that have increased substantially since 2000.
The minister has acted to demonise hydrocarbon fuels. This minister claims that “renewables” are now the cheapest way to generate electricity, but he cherry picks his scenarios to avoid report after report that taking electricity as a whole, not just some favourable parts, burning coal is about half the cost of “renewables”.
It would be new to me if blatant cherry picking, disregard for debate with experts with contrary findings, disregard for serving the wills of the people are ways to achieve excellence.
In short, I and many others alleged that the minister is a dangerous clown who is dictating enormous national economic damage in pursuit of a dream that is rejected by voluntary inaction by about 94% of the global population.
Are you concerned by this alleged lack of excellence by this minister?
Geoff S
Don’t forget that BOBowen is enabled by the equally incompetent Albasleezy.
Isn’t it weird that all these COPs end up being held in luxury holiday resorts?
My Aussie friend who lives in Turkey has an apartment in Antalya, from what he says its a lot like Australia’s Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. At least they picked a nice venue.
Just looked at images on the web..
Certainly looks like a rather idyllic location
Idyllic??
Would it be idyllic when you pack 50, 60 or 70 thousand grifters in
Bowen is as nincompoop.
Australia has an ostensibly independent Productivity Commission whose job is to advise governments how to improve the country’s productivity. Its latest advice to the government in that regard is to increase taxes.
The PC is currently run by Danielle Wood an economist who previously worked for the Grattan Institute, a left-wing think tank that is a strong advocate for ‘fighting climate change’.
Incidentally Bowen has a bachelor degree in economics and is very proud of having been tutored by Yanis Varoufakis economic advisor to George Papandreou Greek Prime Minister during the 2009 Greek debt crisis.
Not to be confused with the Tasmanian Author Danelle Wood … one of the few loves of my entire life.
“Australia has an ostensibly independent Productivity Commission whose job is to advise governments how to improve the country’s productivity. Its latest advice to the government in that regard is to increase taxes.”
Raise the price of energy, and raise the price of doing business by raising taxes! That’s just the opposite of increasing productivity.
No wonder Australia is in the sad condition it is in, it is being led by these fuzzy thinkers.
The real path to productivity is to cut taxes. This not only increases business activity, it increases federal tax revenues. It works every time it is tried in the United States. Australia should try some of it. But first, ditch the windmills and industrial solar, and the radical leftist attitude.
I am not an economist but even I can tell you that when you piss away your time, money and resources on stuff that doesn’t work like wind, solar and storage and close down things that do work like fossil fuels and block things that work like nuclear your economy is going to suck. Wake up.
Well I can call myself an economist Bob, but I accept that we’re only there to make weather forecasters look good.
The loss of productivity is a function of having to pay homage to the king and the country.
The prelude to football matches is a good example; now takes as long as the game. The same thing with every meeting in big business and government where the first hour is consumed paying homage to past present and emerging leaders. With the only requirement that these leaders claim to be firstpeople.
Every project now has huge hurdles with environmental, first people and law fare to negotiate.
At least the hurdles makes new wind and solar farms and interconnecting lines almost impossible.
The great economic advantage of household solar and battery is that there are no hurdles. The fact that it is the only game in play means the installers are chasing home owners so they can harvest the subsidies.
And all this stuff being built is only shifting CO2 production to China. The existing hardware is quite capable of doing the job but there is all this additional hardware that does next to nothing. A mammoth waste of resources that only a once wealthy country could afford.
Look on the bright side. Bowen is giving his aid to Turkey. Now with this aid, I am assuming, that he will convince Turkey to not allow the new shale discoveries. ;
Will Australia break the attendance record and smash through the 500 delegates barrier?
The more, the merrier. The Australian taxpayers have plenty of money. And the world *must* be saved from CO2!
Makes an Aussie proud to have Bowen so cunningly dodge the COP smoking ceremony tradition, pioneered at COP30.
LOL 🙂 – ritual burning of the plastic!
Australia: lions lead by donkeys. And the donkeys are lead by an ass.
It’s great news. Bowen is being kicked upstairs. Hi UN, I’m here to help.
And just when you thought the UN couldn’t get more useless and gormless. 😉
I would like to thank Turkey – as an Australian citizen – for its success in winning the next COP. Even more I would like to thank them for the deal in which they take our Minister Chris Bowen, well known mental midget and obsessed fool to ostensibly be the leader or whatever he is.
Aussies had been told to expect a $2billion for the cost of Cop. Hence Turkey us saving us a bundle of dough even though the addled Chris will probably hand out a billion to the Pacific Islands states as their next round of climate bribes even though the actual evidence shows that most are growing rather than sinking.
The best bit is that he will be out of Australia for periods of time. If someone with tech skills could assail our passports management system and cancel Chris while he is out of the country we would be even more grateful!
Perhaps they didn’t want to host the last ever COP. How much more life does this silly conference have left? Funding’s drying up, stated goals missed, not even bothering to state goals anymore, countries not showing up, etc.
COP and the entire green movement feels like it’s in its death throes.
Even Saint Greta has moved on to protesting Palestine rather than CO2.