Energy Minister Chris Bowen has joined with the United Nation’s top climate official to spruik the benefits of solar, wind and hydro-electric power as a hedge against global inflation and elevated oil prices triggered by the Iran war.
Addressing attendees at a climate summit in the German city of Bonn in his new role as president of negotiations for the COP31 summit, Mr Bowen said that the transition to renewables would help insulate economies from international shocks.
“The fragility of fossil fuel supply chains makes this case even more compelling,” Mr Bowen told delegates on Monday (Tuesday, AEST) at the opening plenary of the Bonn Intercessional – a mid-year negotiating session before November’s UN COP summit in Turkey. “Solar energy must travel 150 million kilometres from the sun to the Earth, but it does not have to travel the 150km through the Strait of Hormuz. The wind cannot be sanctioned. Hydro energy cannot be blockaded.”
Retaliatory rocketfire between Israel and Iran in recent days has threatened to derail Donald Trump’s efforts to extend a fragile ceasefire brokered between the two countries, dampening hopes of an imminent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – a key conduit for crude oil supply.
Speaking at the same event, Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate change executive secretary, struck a similar tone, arguing the recent events in the Middle East had exposed the economic costs of dependence on fossil fuels.
Asserting the Iran war had sparked a “fossil fuel cost crisis”, Mr Stiell said the case for accelerating investment in renewable energy had become “crystal clear”. “Continuing our fossil fuel dependency means continuing to import inflation and economic instability, while exporting energy security, sovereignty and policy autonomy, leaving economies and communities exposed to climate disasters, taking a wrecking ball to lives and prosperity everywhere,” he said. Despite the pair’s calls, leading energy advisory firm Energy Quest said on Tuesday that Australia would remain dependent on imported oil for many years, leaving it vulnerable to supply disruptions and price shocks.
The consultancy noted that while domestic oil and gas production had declined, overall consumption has remained largely unchanged. “Energy systems at a national scale do not transform easily or quickly,” the firm said in a note to clients. “There has been a major effort to increase renewable supply in the (National Electricity Market) but Australia continues to rely on fossil fuels for more than 90 per cent of primary energy supply, and oil remains the main source of energy.”
Despite the pair’s calls, leading Australian energy advisory firm Energy Quest said on Tuesday that Australia would remain dependent on imported oil for many years, leaving it vulnerable to global supply disruptions and price shocks.
Mr Bowen assumed the role of COP president of negotiations at last year’s summit in Brazil after a dispute over hosting arrangements led Australia to share responsibilities with Turkey. While Turkey will host the conference, Mr Bowen will oversee efforts to secure an agreement.
As COP president, Mr Bowen is leading work with country delegations to reach consensus on emissions-reduction issues, raising global ambition to tackle climate change, and building relations with countries, institutions, businesses and other stakeholders. His efforts to influence negotiations thus far have been limited, however, with soaring fuel costs in Australia making any trip abroad politically sensitive.
After cancelling a trip in April to the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Germany, the first major event of the COP circuit, Mr Bowen travelled to Denmark last month for the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial.
His international engagements have drawn sustained criticism from the Coalition, which has accused him of being distracted from his domestic duties and establishing a “sprawling new COP 31 bureaucracy” to help co-ordinate a precursor Pacific event and assist him in his duties.
Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan on Tuesday criticised Mr Bowen’s international engagements, noting their cost had come on top of $485,000 spent on taxpayer-funded trips for officials supporting Australia’s participation in the COP31 summit. “For Bowen to use the trip to lecture Australians on renewables when they are still waiting for their promised $275 off their power bills as winter comes beggars belief … We need cheap, abundant and reliable energy in Australia, not Chris Bowen’s ideological-driven fantasy,” he said.
Although Australia’s role in hosting the COP conference has drawn support from environmental groups, on Tuesday they urged the government to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels. “More clearly needs to be done to ensure COP31 is a moment of true implementation,” Greenpeace Australia’s head of Pacific Shiva Gouden said.
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