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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has drawn a red line through talks with Turkey over the COP climate conference for next year, declaring Australia would not consider co-hosting to break a diplomatic impasse.
Negotiations about whether Turkey or Australia will host next year’s meeting have stretched into the second week of this year’s global talks taking place in Belem, Brazil, where Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has been working since the weekend.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Melbourne on Monday where he said co-hosting COP was not an option. Credit: Eddie Jim.
The prime minister’s remarks were his most definitive to date, indicating Australia would only host the event on its own, a prospect unlikely given President Erdogan of Turkey is refusing to budge on his bid for the event.
“We won’t be co-hosting, because co-hosting isn’t provided for under the rules of the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change]. So that’s not an option,” Albanese said in Melbourne on Monday.
“And people are aware it’s not an option. Which is why it has been ruled out.”
Albanese’s comments came after it was reported on Sunday that Turkey would be willing to share hosting duties with Australia, according to Turkish diplomatic sources quoted by Reuters.
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The COP president, who is responsible for facilitating the negotiations, is appointed by the host nation, and UN rules do not allow for the position to be divided.
Multiple federal government sources said Albanese’s comments were not a signal that he had given up hope of hosting the event, but rather were an expression of support for Bowen to confront Turkish officials with an ultimatum to either host the event or concede to Australia.
Bowen is set to meet with his Turkish counterpart as soon as Tuesday morning in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
He said on Saturday at Sydney airport that many of Australia’s allies and all members of its UN group – known as Western European and Others Group – backed the bid.
“The situation remains that Australia has the overwhelming support of the world to host COP31,” Bowen said. “That means we need to reach an agreement with Turkey … that’s difficult.”
Sources not authorised to speak publicly said that Bowen had told cabinet colleagues he was offering Turkey some involvement in the conference in exchange for withdrawing its bid to host. Australia could offer to cede so-called pre-COP talks, or the meeting of world leaders normally held during the first week of the talks, but this year held days before the talks began.
Thom Woodroofe, senior international fellow with the Smart Energy Council in Australia and a former climate diplomat who is in Belém, said he had seen no sign that Australia was backing down in its efforts to secure the hosting rights.
“The Turks continue to ask for the impossible. There is simply no way under the UNFCCC rules for there to be a ‘co-presidency’, nor is it even conceptually workable that two countries on the opposite sides of the world with vastly different priorities and experiences of the climate crisis could govern something as complex as a COP under a unified umbrella,” Woodroofe said.
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”Nobody here in Belem is under any false pretences as to what is holding up a deal, and that this delay is having an impact on what is the most consequential gathering for many countries in the world – far beyond just the Pacific. Just as nobody is under any false pretences that Australia will surely be prepared to take this to the end given the overwhelming support they continue to enjoy, and which shows no sign of changing.”
Also speaking from Belem, Petter Lydén, head of international affairs for the German environmental and foreign affairs non-profit Germanwatch, said he was aware that Germany had been seeking to help resolve the impasse via third parties, and that the German preference was that Australia host the talks.
“In terms of not only climate credentials, but also democratic criteria, Australia would be preferable to Turkey,” he said.
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