Labor ‘greenwashing’ climate record with bid to host international summit: report

Australia has been accused of trying to “greenwash” its climate record by seeking to co-host an international summit with Pacific states despite “decades of inaction”.

Left-wing think tank the Australia Institute will today issue a report criticising the Albanese government for its bid to host the 2026 United Nations Conference of the Parties, also known as COP31. 

“Australia has said co-hosting the COP will repair its reputation. A better place to start would be to stop subsidising and approving new gas and coal projects,” Australia Institute climate and energy program director Polly Hemming said. 

“Awarding Australia COP hosting rights in anticipation of it changing its ways would be at best a case of putting the cart before the horse, and at worst a case of rewarding a country for decades of recalcitrance.”

In the report, titled “A fair COP31”, the think tank says the bid to host the conference would be a “positive development” because it would invite “international scrutiny of Australia’s climate ambition”.

It would also present the country’s Pacific neighbours “with an opportunity to demand that Australia face up to its responsibilities as a major per-capita emitter of greenhouse gases and the world’s third largest exporter of gas and coal”, the report says.

Crikey sent the report to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s office on Thursday afternoon, asking for comment, but a spokesperson declined on Friday morning to issue any statement. 

The report notes the governments of Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Fiji, Niue and the Solomon Islands have issued a joint resolution calling for urgent actions to address climate change. 

“It should not be incumbent on Australia’s Pacific neighbours … to force Australia into acting like a responsible global citizen,” the report says.

“However, the urgency and scale of the existential threat climate change poses to Pacific nations mean they may have little choice than to leverage opportunities like COP31 to secure more climate action from Australia.”

When Bowen announced Australia’s intention to bid for the hosting rights, he said: “It’s an opportunity to work closely with our Pacific family, and we will seek to co-host the bid with the Pacific to help elevate the case of the Pacific for more climate action.”

The Australia Institute has previously been supportive of plans for Australia to host a COP summit. 

“Labor’s indication that it will bid to co-host a future UN climate conference stands in stark contrast with the current government’s performance at [COP26 in] Glasgow, where the objective was to do as little as possible”, Richie Merzian, Hemming’s predecessor as climate and energy program director, said in 2021.