Prime Minister confirms Adelaide wont host COP31 conference

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia will not host next year's international climate conference but will still play a key role. Turkiye and Australia are finalising a deal which will see Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen take on the cop presidency for negotiations, but Turkiye will host the event. The prime minister says it's a big win for Australia, but some pacific leaders have already voiced disappointment.

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00:00Look, it's an unusual arrangement, Joe, and unprecedented in some ways.

00:07So we'll have to wait and see exactly how this is going to work.

00:09But essentially what's happening here is that Australia and Turkey are sharing duties,

00:15in a way, for COP31.

00:16So as you mentioned, the actual COP summit itself, the major two-week event for next

00:21year, will not be held in Adelaide.

00:23As Australia hoped, it will instead be held in Turkey, we believe in a town in the south,

00:28and a resort town down in the south of the country.

00:31Now, of course, that's not what Australia wanted, but it has managed to extract some

00:36concessions in return.

00:38In particular, Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, will hold a major role in leading

00:42negotiations during that COP presidency, which will be held by Turkey.

00:47So he's going to be what's been called the COP president for negotiations.

00:51This is a very, very unusual situation and arrangement.

00:55But it seems that he will have a major role essentially organising and orchestrating those

01:02key global negotiations during the conference, as well as around it.

01:06On top of that, there are some concessions for the Pacific as well.

01:09Australia's managed under this deal.

01:11This is assuming, of course, it's finalised and inked that the Pacific will get a standalone

01:17COP leaders meeting in the region, in a country which is yet to be decided.

01:22And on top of that, there's going to be a fundraising round for the Pacific Resilience Facility.

01:26That's the key climate change fund that's been set up in Tonga for Pacific priorities.

01:31So all in all, a really unusual set of compromises made here, but one that both sides can obviously

01:38live with.

01:39Let's take a listen to what Chris Bowen had to say about this, speaking earlier today

01:43from Belem.

01:44It would be great if Australia could have it all, but we can't have it all.

01:50This process works on consensus and consensus means if someone objected to our bid, it would

01:57go to Bonn.

01:59That would mean 12 months with a lack of leadership, no COP president in place, no plan.

02:07That would be irresponsible for multilateralism and this challenged environment.

02:13And we didn't want that to happen.

02:15And so Stephen, Australia has clearly lost out on the hosting rights, but the Prime Minister

02:20is framing this really positively.

02:22Yeah.

02:23I guess perhaps unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister wants to spin this as a win for Australia.

02:30His argument is that this actually ticks a lot of the key boxes for Australia.

02:35No, it won't get hosting rights, but it will nonetheless get to play a key role in these

02:39negotiations through Chris Bowen in this key position that will actually shape negotiations

02:44and provide an avenue for the Pacific to feed in its views.

02:49On top of that, he points out that this actually brings the Pacific in, not just with the leaders

02:53meeting but also with this funding round.

02:55That is something that they've identified as a top priority.

02:58So the Prime Minister's argument is given Australia was facing a stalemate and the prospect

03:03of this reverting to Bonn because Turkey Air was simply not willing to shift, what Australia

03:08has managed to do is extract some meaningful concessions that can be faithfully presented

03:14as a win for the region and for the Pacific in particular.

03:17This is how he's put it.

03:19So we needed to work it through with our Pacific partners.

03:24And it was either Bonn or Turkey, that is the situation that we were facing.

03:32And it's really important when you have a two horse race where if either doesn't, if there's

03:39not an agreement, it would have gone to Bonn.

03:41And that would not have been a good outcome.

03:44And Stephen, what's been the response in Adelaide and the Pacific?

03:48Sure.

03:49Let's start with Adelaide.

03:50Unsurprisingly, Joe, Peter Malinowskis, the Premier of South Australia is bitterly disappointed.

03:55He hasn't criticised the Prime Minister or the federal government at all.

03:58He says he understands that the government had to work in a very difficult situation and had

04:03to strike a deal.

04:04But he's called the UN process, which effectively hands any country, and in this case, Turkey,

04:09an effective right of veto over any country that they don't want to host, obscene.

04:16And he said on top of that, that Adelaide is unsurprisingly very disappointed to miss out.

04:23Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

04:25I understand the position the Prime Minister has taken.

04:30He has taken a position to try and navigate the, quite frankly, obscene process that exists

04:39internationally.

04:40It's very clear that the rest of the world largely would have preferred COP to be in Adelaide,

04:46but that Turkey was going to exercise their veto right.

04:49Now, as for the Pacific, and this is something the government will be tracking very closely,

04:55the reaction so far has been pretty mixed.

04:58At least one Pacific leader has been publicly calling for the government not to back down,

05:02and they were very worried.

05:04This is Sir Angle Whips, the president of Palau, about the prospect of a diluted COP under Turkey.

05:10There have also been some murmurs within the Pacific or some rumbles within the Pacific among

05:15some countries and among some officials and leaders that the Prime Minister hadn't really

05:20put his shoulder to the wheel to win this.

05:22I think some Pacific countries had picked up that there were mixed views in Cabinet in Australia

05:26and also institutionally, with some inside DFAT not being overly enthusiastic about this

05:32bid.

05:32So that exposed Australia to criticisms, or at least to the risk of criticism, that perhaps

05:38this was a bit half-hearted.

05:39Other Pacific leaders, though, are more forgiving, and they say in the end the problem here wasn't

05:44Australia, the problem was Turkey air and the fact that it was just intransigent and unwilling

05:49to budge.

05:50And so they say at least Australia has managed to win some really respectable carve-outs that

05:56will actually serve their key interests.

05:58So, look, we'll have to wait and see what public Pacific leaders say over the coming weeks.

06:03We probably won't get a clear sense of what the Pacific makes of all this for another few

06:06days, but initially the response is certainly mixed.

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