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Australia has withdrawn from its bid to host the United Nations climate conference next year, after three years of competition with Turkiye.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.”
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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
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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.
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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.
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