COP out? Prospect of climate summit spanning Australia and Turkey raises carbon emissions question

5 days ago 5

Australia and Turkey are considering splitting hosting duties for next year’s global climate summit, a move which could spur thousands of extra passenger flights and burn hundreds of tonnes of polluting aviation fuel in a bid to address the world’s climate crisis.

The Albanese government pledged in the 2025 election to bring the COP – which refers to the United Nations’ annual climate summit, known as the Conference of the Parties – to Australia in 2026.

Air travel accounts for about 2.5 per cent of annual global emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.

Selecting a host nation requires a consensus of UN members and Turkey has refused to back down from its bid to bring what is known as the world’s biggest trade show to their shores next year.

Australia is negotiating with Turkey to jointly host the event, according to sources familiar with the discussions, despite Australia’s previous agreement to co-host the event with neighbouring states in the Pacific that are forecast to suffer some of the worst consequences from climate change.

COP is a huge event drawing tens of thousands of delegates from nations around the globe for up to two weeks of negotiations over strategies to reduce greenhouse pollution and ease global warming.

It is unclear how the potential dual hosting duties would play out in practice and officials stressed that details would be subject to negotiation. If the conference is hosted between countries, the extra travel that would be required of delegates who may attend meetings in Turkey and Australia raises questions over the carbon footprint of an event that is convened to cut emissions.

Around 65,000 people attended the previous COP in Azerbaijan, including delegates, lobbyists and corporate representatives. To take an extreme example, which is unlikely to eventuate, this would generate hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions if all of these people took passenger flights between Europe and Australia.

A return flight from London to Australia generates about 4 tonnes of carbon pollution per passenger or around 260,000 tonnes for the entire cast of Azerbaijan.

This is equivalent to 0.08 per cent of the 440 million tonnes Australia is currently generating per year, or; the annual emissions from 160,000 australian cars, which generate 190 grams of greenhouse pollution per kilometre and drive on average for 13000 kilometres a year.

Former Australian climate diplomat Richie Merzian, now chief executive of the Clean Energy Investor Group, said it was likely that Australia would strike a deal with Turkey and potentially agree on joint hosting duties. The upcoming COP, to be held in Brazil this November, would present an opportunity to finalise a deal, he said.

Merzian said Turkey has a history of using its nomination in climate talks to win concessions or support for other diplomatic efforts.

When Turkey held up the UK’s bid to host the Glasgow climate talks, Britain promised to host a Turkish investment conference in London and back Turkish candidates for several international and UN posts, Politico reported in May.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Adelaide could host the conference, and that Australia would serve as a co-host with its Pacific neighbours.

Merzian and Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie welcomed the government’s efforts to break the deadlock with Turkey. Both said the conference would attract global investors to Australia, whose support is needed to build the renewable energy Australia will rely on to reach its climate goals.

“It’s the world’s biggest trade fair. The world is transitioning rapidly to clean energy, and Australia is the sunniest country in the world and we’re one of the windiest. We have huge opportunities in green metals like lithium, and we’ve also got opportunities to use cheap, clean power to build new industries,” McKenzie said.

Responding to questions about COP carbon footprint from international travel, McKenzie said a climate conference was not the most productive place to start looking for emissions cuts.

“You’ve got to get people together to solve problems, there’s no way around it,” she said.

“If we are looking for savings, how about we restrict travel to fossil fuel conferences around the world where executives get together and work out how they can pollute more.”

The Albanese government was contacted for comment.

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