 Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the beautiful headquarters of the Lowy Institute here at 31 Blystreet for this special address by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, the Honourable Chris Bowen MP. As you can see, Chris, we have a full house here at Blystreet tonight and we've been turning people away. There's a huge amount of interest in this speech. Before we begin, let me acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which the Institute stands, the Gadigal of the Eora Nation and I pay my respects to their elders past and present. Ladies and gentlemen, everywhere we look we see challenges to the global order from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine to Hamas's ghastly attack of October the 7th and all that has followed to China's assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. And all the while, of course, while those issues are rightly attracting our attention, the planet continues to heat up. We know that unchecked climate change will be disastrous for the earth and for humanity. Already we are confronted by the consequences of climate change, more frequent and severe tropical cyclones in the Pacific, wildfires and floods in Europe and Asia. Here in Australia we see more extreme weather events, more droughts and flooding rains. Next week, ministers from around the world will convene in Dubai for the 28th conference of the parties. Their goal is to find ways to reduce global carbon emissions to limit dangerous global warming. And Australia's delegation at Dubai will be led by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen. Since its election in May last year, the Albanese government has brought new momentum and energy to the issue of climate change, including a legislated commitment to cut carbon emissions and achieve net zero emissions. Last week, it signed an historic agreement with Tuvalu, the Fale Pili Union. This treaty, the first of its kind, will allow Tuvaluans affected by rising sea levels to settle in Australia. Oh, there we go. Many of these efforts have been led by Chris Bowen. Chris entered parliament in 2007. Since then, he's held a number of important portfolios, including immigration and the Treasury. Since June 2022, he served as the Climate Change and Energy Minister. I've known Chris since university, which was back in the time of the Ming Dynasty, or thereabouts, I would say. Chris is a student of politics, an adherent to the idea of politics as a vocation and a believer in the idea that politics can change things. I'm grateful that he has accepted my invitation to come to Bly Street tonight to set out Australia's priorities in the lead-up to the conference of the parties. Minister, the lectern is yours. As we gather tonight on Gadigaland and acknowledge the elders of our First Peoples, let us also acknowledge the fundamental truth that our First Nations people who enjoy such a rich and meaningful connection with their country have much to lose from unchecked climate change. But there's another truth as well. That is that this energy transition can be one of the elements of closing the gap of Indigenous disadvantage in our country. I've been thinking a lot about this in recent weeks as we consider the way forward for reconciliation in our country. I recently received a visit from a delegation of Canadian First Peoples. Did you know that in Canada, fully 20% of renewable energy initiatives are in First Nations ownership, providing income and employment for Canadian First Peoples? I've been discussing this with my Canadian counterpart and friend, Stephen Gabot, and with our own First Nations Clean Energy Network, which our government established. In so many ways, getting this energy transition right is the key to our country's economic prosperity. But I think getting First Nations involvement right in renewable energy can play a big role in the future economic health of Australia's Indigenous peoples. Well, it's a great pleasure to be here tonight. It's far from my first speech to the Lower Institute, but it does happen to be my first as Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Michael, thank you for your invitation to address the Institute. Ever since we met as Sydney University students 30 years ago, Michael's been a good friend. He was a deep thinker then and he's one of our country's leading thinkers today. And for the past 20 years, the Lower Institute has admirably shaped major conversations around foreign policy Australia's place in the world, driving bipartisan and thought-provoking analysis. So congratulations to the Lower Institute on your 20-year milestone. We came to government with a big agenda, to drive the domestic energy transformation, to lift our climate ambition and put the nation on a new trajectory, to provide new leadership at home and abroad, to turn our country's climate policy from an international embarrassment into a means of international engagement, to capitalise on the best comparative advantage our country has ever been gifted, and to make our country a renewable energy superpower. We've made a good start, but the job is far from over. I'm pleased with the progress we've made so far, but far from satisfied. In the first weeks of the Albanese government, the Prime Minister and I wrote the UNFCCC with Australia's updated NDC and 2030 target, a lift from 2060-28% up to 43%. We were joined at that signing ceremony by representatives of the business committee, the trade union movement, energy users, energy generators, manufacturers and climate groups. Sure, this was symbolism, but it was important symbolism. I think it sent several messages that the broad swathe of Australians wanted the climate wars to end, that not only had the government of Australia changed, but Australia had changed, and that we are all in on action on climate change, business, unions, climate groups, all in. The makers and users of energy united on working on this most important economic transition, united as we must be. Now much has happened since, and I won't be detaining you tonight with a detailed summary of our climate policy achievements over the last 80 months, but it's been a very busy period. My friend James Shaw, the outgoing New Zealand's Minister for Climate Change, was kind enough to recently observe, in his opinion, that the Albanese government did more in its first 12 months on climate policy than the Ardern government did in five years. This includes the passage of the Climate Change Act, enshrining our targets into law to send the message to renewable energy investors around the world that we are a stable and welcoming policy environment. The act also enshrined the annual Climate Change Statement to Parliament, and I'll be making the second such statement next week, updating the parliament and the nation on progress, obstacles and the way forward in an open and transparent manner, being straight about the challenges as well as the opportunities. And we've reformed the safeguard mechanism, delivering real and meaningful emissions reductions from our industrial sector in a way which encourages ongoing industrial and economic resilience in Australia. I've been pleased that since we passed those reforms, major industrial powerhouses committed to decarbonisation. Oracle and Blue Scope have announced investments in Australian manufacturing worth billions of dollars, and have cited the policy certainty created by our reforms as essential for making those investments. The key to our targets and policies, and that each one, as far as I'm concerned, that we consider, has to meet, is a twin test. They must be ambitious and achievable. We need to stretch our country's efforts, but this ambition needs to be considered in the context of a deep understanding of our economic strengths, challenges and opportunities. And our current targets are not without challenges. That's because they're ambitious. They are meant to stretch, but they're ambitious with enormous dividends. Cleaner, cheaper, more reliable energy into the domestic grid, capitalising on the jobs and investment inherent in the net zero transformation, delivering real emissions reductions for future generations at home and abroad. And of course, the case for urgency and action is strong. In 2023, Australia had already seen, has already seen, devastating bushfires across multiple states before we even hit summer. In Queensland, more homes have already burnt in the state this year than during the 2019-2020 black summer. In southern Queensland, October brought the third highest number of daytime hotspots seen this century, trends detected by heat-sensing satellites that show fire activity. And at the peak of these fires did not ease at night. Five times more nighttime hotspots than average have been detected compared to previous October's. Not only are we seeing hotter and drier conditions this summer, but we're seeing it around the clock, living our firefighters and emergency services increasingly stretched. And this mirrors, of course, what we're seeing globally. Last week, the medical journal, The Lancet, issued their eighth countdown report monitoring the impacts of climate change on health and productivity. 2023 witnessed the world seeing the highest global temperatures in over 100,000 years and heat records that were broken in all continents through 2022. At older than 65, an infant's younger than one year for whom extreme heat can be particularly life-threatening and now exposed to twice as many heatwave days as they would have experienced in a period of 1986 to 2005. We can't ignore these realities and indeed we need to stay the course both domestically and internationally. So with this in mind, tonight I want to discuss our international climate position, 18 months into government, including our domestic agenda, which is critical to establishing credibility and ensuring Australia's benefit from the net zero transition, establishing our nation as a renewable energy superpower and the international climate reset we've seen since we were elected. I'll also give an update on some of the key issues leading into COP28 for Australia. One of the key pillars of our energy plan is, of course, the target of 82% renewables by 2030, up from around 33% when we came to government. This is no small challenge. It'll see us almost triple the share of renewables in our grid. It requires growing and modernizing our transmission and distribution infrastructure and considerable undertaking in the vast nation of large distances like Australia. And despite what some detractors may say, it's actually in line with like-minded countries and with global trends. The International Energy Agency's latest renewable energy analysis shows global renewable capacities expected to increase by almost 2,400 gigawatts. That's almost 75% between 2022 and 2027. In 2023 global investment in solar power is set to eclipse oil investment for the first time ever. Renewable energy capacity in the United States is forecast to increase 75% or over 280 gigawatts from 2022 to 2027 in line with their target of 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035. Canada's aim is 90% renewable and zero emissions energy by 2030 and 100% by 2035. Ireland's national development plan increased the target of share of renewables in electricity consumption to 80% by 2030. And in Italy the Ministry of Ecological Transition has proposed increasing the share of renewable electricity to 72%. Germany raised its 2030 target from 65% to 80% and accelerated the pace of solar PV and wind expansion by 2030. So the point I'm making is that our plans are ambitious but in line with global trends and it's critical that we maintain the course. It's critical for costs, critical for reliability and critical for energy security. 82% will deliver cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy for Australians. We know renewable energy is cheaper. Australians with solar panels know that. Australian households are serving up to 57% on their energy bills if they have rooftop solar installed. They're also cleaner, critical to achieving our emissions reduction task. But increasing renewables in our grid is also vital for reliability and for energy security. In 2022 Australia's coal fire power fleet suffered thousands of hours of forced outages, leaving the grid's shorter forecast coal generation capacity for nearly a quarter of the year. Expert analysis of coal plant performance finds that the units are collectively unavailable for a much longer period or volume of energy than was the case several years ago. And this isn't a political view, it's a practical reality and reinforces the urgency of the transition to renewables. The importance of our plan to get to 82% for affordability, for cleaner energy and for reliability. The other overlooked fact about renewable energy is that it provides us with a strategic advantage when it comes to energy security. We have an abundance of wind and solar resources enough to power our economy several times over. We receive 58 million petajoules of solar radiation a year, 10,000 times more than we need. The ongoing geopolitical circumstances just reinforce the view that these resources are important. The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us of the need to ensure protection against vulnerable global supply chains. The war in Ukraine has had a devastating impact on energy security with much of Europe held ransom to the supply of resources from Russia. And we have seen how this European energy supply crisis has cascaded across the world, highlighting the flaws in energy security reliant on concentrated fossil fuel supply chains. But there's no geopolitical crisis which can stop the flow of sunshine to our land or can stop the wind blowing on or off our shore. Last month the International Energy Agency released a 2023 world energy outlook with energy security as a central theme. As the report says, the Russian invasion has shown and I quote, domestically produced clean energy can clearly be an asset at times of geopolitical stress. And there's no nation better set up to take advantage of this than Australia. Of course, a reliable renewable system must be buttressed with robust storage, transmission and where possible sovereign domestic manufacturing of the key elements of the renewable supply chain. And that's exactly what our policies are designed to achieve. Reducing reliance on and exposure to international fossil fuel headwinds is good for domestic energy security and our plans to transform our energy grid to 82% renewable energy is essential for both this and energy reliability. Secondly, setting our nation up as a renewable energy superpower will be critical to our continued future as a reliable energy supplier to the world. And as a key driver to our domestic and international conversations, properly managed, this is a win-win. Our domestic decarbonisation efforts are important, but they pale in comparison to the emissions reduction achieved if we're able to harness and export our renewable energy to help countries who don't have the abundant renewable resources that we have. And of course, the economic dividend for our country is enormous. Across green hydrogen and ammonia, green metals, refined critical minerals and clean technology manufacturing including battery and supply chains. Our fundamental comparative advantage in the future is our renewable energy potential. Our tremendous solar radiation and wind resources can provide the basis for industries powered by cleaner, cheaper energy. Our 82% target is critical to laying down the foundations of our superpower plan. But it doesn't stop with 82%, which is why we're developing our sectoral plans that set us on the journey to net zero emissions. There's a critical to our renewable superpower ambitions for two reasons underpinned by a basic reciprocity. One, we know that we need to mobilise and attract significant global capital to achieve these ambitions. And having a clearly articulated plan for the transition is no longer optional, but a baseline expectation of capital markets. Two, we will achieve both goals net zero emissions and the development of new export opportunities far more efficiently by working on shared challenges with our trading partners. Just as our historically prosperous industries have developed through the exchange of capital and knowledge between Australia and our trading partners, so too will new clean energy industries be built in partnership with these countries, with Australians benefiting from the upside of jobs and investment that this will generate. Whether this is any officer's investment in renewable hydrogen in Queensland or Posco's plans to invest massive amounts in renewable hydrogen and green iron production in a Pilbara, these international partnerships will underpin our shared domestic and regional prosperity as the world decarbonises. We continue to work with the United States through our historic climate critical minerals and clean energy transformation compact to harness the opportunities for Australia. The agreement between President Biden and Prime Minister Albanese to make climate and clean energy the third pillar of the alliance was no small thing. Energy Secretary Granholm and I have already had several conversations about the operationalisation of this agreement and there were further announcements on the practical work Australia and the United States will do together during the Prime Minister's recent visit. Australia's net zero commitment and renewable superpower ambition are the twin engines in the government's plan to harness the opportunities of the global energy transformation. Our approach is ambitious seeking to play to our strengths and position Australia's economy to capitalise on the opportunities as our trading partners decarbonise you. Over 97% of our exports go to destinations with net zero commitments. But as well as cultivating our international partnerships this vision also includes backing Australian businesses to become a bigger part of the energy transition both here and abroad. This means backing the industries that are key to our renewable superpower ambitions by supporting their ability to play to their strengths. Whether it's High Sata building a game-changing electrolyser technology in Elawara or Sun Drive manufacturing high energy efficient solar cells in Australia the government is supporting ambitious Australian manufacturers to go big and to do so here. This helps us achieve our targets diversify supply chains and is supporting new jobs and opportunities in our regions as well. It's about developing long-term competitiveness through clean energy while maximising the benefits of our energy transition to our economic security resilience and to our strategic interests to our people and to our regions. In the last few weeks we've seen Queenbrook infrastructure partners planning to build a solar polysilicon plant in Queensland to supply international solar panel manufacturers looking to diversify their supply chains. This major plant is being considered Townsville and it will be amongst the first in the world to rely heavily on renewable energy in the manufacturing process. Attracting investors like Queenbrook is possible when we have the fundamental comparative advantages but to attract many more we need to have clear and active industry policy and a stable investment environment. The challenges of this task we've set ourselves a self-evident. We're competing for finite resources in a tight global supply chain whether it's wind turbine components or electrolyzers. We're going to have to grow the clean energy workforce by many thousands. One example we need 32,000 more electricians between now and 2030. That's a lot of electricians in a short time. These challenges can't be ignored and can't be overcome by sitting on the sidelines. Ultimately we're also competing for global capital and our superpower plan is our best asset in this race. Our clearly articulated ambitious plan to become a renewable energy superpower by leveraging our trading and investment relationships and backing our innovative clean energy businesses is a crucial sign to the world that Australia is open for business. Now of course none of this ambition and domestic action comes in a vacuum. In no small way modern foreign policy and climate policy are intrinsically linked. The combination of increased climate change ambition and a genuine willingness to engage with like-minded nations reprising our role as a member of the Pacific family and our responsibility to represent our region has seen Australia emerge from being a reluctant spectator internationally and often a detractor in international discussions to a constructive interlocutor and more than that to a nation willing to play a role in keeping with our ambitions for ourselves and our region. The Indo-Pacific Council more than half of the world's energy consumption and emissions and the region's confronting very real impacts as we know. Nowhere is the climate threat more profound than in the Pacific with Kiribati, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands only a few meters above sea levels above the sea level. The Australia Tuvalu-Philippeli Union signed by the Prime Minister's Albanese and Natano shows what practical but ambitious leadership looks like. Where Australia has answered a request from Tuvalu to help safeguard its future through a special mobility pathway and a security commitment while also boosting our assistance for Tuvalu's adaptation and coastal resilience. And of course we put forward our bid to host COP 31 in partnership with the Pacific to elevate Pacific voices and experiences in international climate discussions. Being back at the table enables us to advocate and advance our region's interests while promoting our domestic agenda and building stronger economic links through partnerships and cooperation. In just over a week's time we'll again be playing a role at COP. Last year I was pleased to be asked by the COP President to co-chair the negotiations on climate finance. It was the first time Australia had been asked to play such a role in a decade. Having not been asked to play such a role in 10 years would now be asked twice in a row. The COP President Dr Salton Al-Jeba has asked Australia to co-chair the discussions on adaptation and I've asked my friend and colleague, Assistant Minister Jeanne McAllister, to undertake this role and she'll do it very well. Now it's fair to say that some have become disillusioned, not only about the role of COP, but about the ability of multilateral forums to progress substantial change. And I understand. For example in July I travelled to India to represent Australia in both the energy and environment G20 ministerials. Fine and flowery speeches in the plenary sessions were not backed up with ambition and intent behind closed doors negotiations. The negotiations based on consensus means that as they are in both the COP and G20 it doesn't take much to block progress. So I don't blame those observing proceedings who will question the ability of such multilateral fora to achieve anything while some nations are so determined to block progress. We are clear-eyed but not disillusioned about the challenges of multilateralism however. The fact is the change is hard. We're talking about some of the most fundamental and existential questions of international climate change and asking nations to change their economies and trajectories and that comes with challenges. Yes it is urgent, yes it is necessary but there are plenty of challenges in the international space. But it's more important than ever that we stay the course because even incremental change can make substantial progress. We need to recognise that countries will move at different paces and different paths but the direction of travel is clear and agreed and we need to stay the course and hard work does make a difference. Before the Paris Accord was struck the world was on track for 3.8 degrees of warming. It's now closer to 2 degrees, too high but better than it was. In our own context the looming Glasgow COP contributed to the maelstrom of political pressure which saw the Morrison government finally sign up for net zero by 2050. It was the very least they could have done and was lacked detail as to the plans but it was a step nonetheless and a step which wouldn't have come about without international pressure through the COP. So change may be incremental but it can add up to something substantial. The recent sunny land statement issued by President Spidey and G is another signal for cautious pragmatic optimism in the lead up to COP 28. The dialogue between the world's two largest economies and emitters ahead of COP 28 is a positive development and the statement does provide some reason for hope. The failure at the G20 however provides us with caution because the sunny land statement shows us that it pays to keep working and that's exactly what we intend to do. Moving on to Australia's approach to COP 28. One of the key outcomes of this year's conference will be the first ever global stock take which is due to conclude in coming weeks to COP 28. It intends to be a frank assessment of where the world is at. If the fires floods and extreme conditions across the world are painting the picture of the urgency of climate action the global stock take is the accompanying label explaining the details of where we stand and where we need to go. I don't know what it'll say but I don't envisage it'll be pretty reading. It'll need to enhance action on the financial and technical support that we need and it will need to drive behaviour. It will need to be and I believe will be a large and substantial and contested discussion and my good friend from Denmark Minister Dan Jorgensen is the co-facilitator which I'm very pleased about. The IEA's World Energy Outlook found that for the first time peaks in global demand for coal, oil and natural gas are visible this decade. That's a good thing for the first time. Thanks to the combination and the growing momentum behind clean energy technologies and structural economic shifts around the world which has had major implications for fossil fuels and again Australia will be arguing for stronger mitigation language. Glasgow was a step forward. In Chamelechek like-minded countries tried to progress further but we were forced to hold the line we were spending all night just negotiating to defend the status quo from Glasgow. In Dubai we will again be arguing for a strong position and stronger mitigation outcomes. We want this COP to be about stronger practical outcomes not just maintaining the status quo. We'll also be supporting a tripling of global renewable capacity and a doubling of global energy efficiency efforts. Australia plays a reasonably unique role in this conversation alongside our friends from Canada another traditional fossil fuel-based economy in the middle of a major transition and arguing for progressive outcomes in international fora. We can play the role of a country that is dealing with the practical implications of this transition each and every day. This is no theoretical exercise for us. We come to the discussions not inhibited by our experience with fossil fuels but informed by it. We come to the discussion as a nation fully seized by the opportunities of renewable energy as well. That's why our stance shouldn't be underestimated. We know the challenges we know how hard it can be but we come to the table with some credibility because we also know the opportunities and the imperative of action. The second major topic for discussion will be the creation of a new fund for loss and damage. Australia supported the decision at COP 27 to establish new funding arrangements including a fund for supporting particularly vulnerable and developing countries to address the loss and damage from climate impacts. We've been contributing very constructively over the last 12 months to the design of the new fund and the future funding arrangements with our representation on the transition committee which served as a drafting group and have engaged widely with Pacific countries to get it right for them as well. Our objective is to ensure that these discussions deliver practical outcomes and maximum impact for the Pacific as well as other countries who are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts. This last point is critical and I want to spend a few moments on it. Australia is of the strong opinion that funding arrangements must deliver for the most climate vulnerable countries drawing from a broad donor base including private and innovative sources of finance. In 1992 the world agreed to common but differentiated responsibilities. That is to say all countries need to act but wealthier countries who have a greater capacity and contributed the most to emissions need to contribute more to climate action and finance. This was and is of course the right approach but the world wasn't set in stone in 1992 just because the country wasn't wealthy or wasn't a major emitter in 1992 doesn't mean the same is necessarily the case 30 years later nor should the contributions of countries be set in stone either. So let me be even clearer the world has changed a lot since 1992 the list of annex one countries who are required to make larger contributions to climate finance would not be the same if we were writing it today. The 2015 Paris Agreement recognised that a country's capability and emissions evolve over time and of course they do. It makes clear that our respective responsibilities should be seen in the light of these different national circumstances and it's time to have that discussion in a serious way. Arguing that climate finance should come from as a broader donor base as possible is about maximising the flow of funds to help the developing world deal with climate change which is ultimately in all our interests. And just as I argued in the international edition of The Guardian with my friends the then New Zealand Minister James Shaw and the Canadian Minister Stephen Gabbo Australia will continue to argue for a sea change in a way multilateral development banks treat climate finance with a view to leveraging multiples more private and public investment in mitigation and adaptation. Our position at the COP comes on the back of Australia's announcement that we will rejoin the Green Climate Fund with a modest contribution to be announced before the end of the year. We'll also contribute to the new Pacific Resilience Facility a Pacific Built Trust Fund that will be established to invest in small scale climate and disaster resilient projects. Australia focused on delivering practical assistance to the region delivering target funding to areas of need that's why we've taken the road we have with our substantial contribution to the Pacific Resilience Fund. We've boosted our infrastructure investments and established a dedicated climate and infrastructure partnership to deliver climate resilient investments for the Pacific's needs and we're now on track to deliver three billion dollars towards the global climate finance goal one billion more than Australia's previous commitment. We've taken on board feedback from our partners in the Pacific on the best ways to direct climate finance efforts and ensure all elements of our efforts deliver directly for Pacific priorities and we'll continue with this lens as discussions about financing continue. So friends keep 1.5 alive was the rallying call for the Glasgow COP we shouldn't forget it at this coming COP that's why Australia will be supportive of strong COP outcomes. Every element every increment of a degree over 1.5 degrees of warming makes a huge difference to our planet and to the health of our people. Since May 2022 we've been restoring Australia's climate leadership at home and abroad that's the approach we'll continue to take in Dubai in coming weeks and beyond it's in the best interests of our country and our region and our planet the stakes are high but so is our determination thank you very much. Minister thank you for paying us the compliment of giving a really substantive speech one that will be picked over I'm sure in the media tonight and tomorrow and will be read closely by your counterparts as they prepare to assemble in Dubai. I want to only ask you a few questions because I know there's a lot of people in the audience who want to direct questions to you. Let me ask you first about your Australia's ambition to become a renewable energy superpower. As you said while domestic decarbonisation is important there are even more far more significant emissions reductions to flow if we can export renewable energy to help other countries decarbonise. We know that Australia has access to vast renewable energy resources but what will it really take to secure our position in a competitive global marketplace given that other much larger countries are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to try to dominate these industries? Where are we best place to lead? What are the best things we have going for us? Well the best things we have going for us are our people, our room. One thing renewable energy takes is space. We have plenty of that and as I said our renewable energy resources. More sunlight hits our country than any other country in the world and we have the second best wind resources of any continent if you count as this continent in the world. After Antarctica it's a bit hard to build wind farms there. So we have massive opportunities. What we lack is capital and we've always been capital hungry as you know since 1788 and that problem will get just more acute as we need more investment. Now the good news is I've just come from another event where there was a chief executive of a major renewable energy company. He said Australia is the key market in the world for him at the moment and that is a common story. So I meet with the chairs or chief executives of all the big renewable firms around the world when they come to Australia and it's been a bit of a revolving door in recent months and that's a very good thing and they all say to me Australia is number one or in the top three or four for them for investment. Now I want to see that pipeline transition to FID. I want to see that transition to construction and you know there's plenty of things that we need to work on to make that a reality. So our planning system for example we are managing strength in some instances renewable energy applications under the EPBC Act the federal approval act have gone up 20%. That's a good thing it means the department is grappling with the workload which we need to deal with but it's managing strength. So I really think it's Michael taking unnatural advantages and translating that to a stable and welcoming policy environment which we are doing and we need to do more of and continue to the ever-receiving finishing line and to take what is as I said as I referred to intimated there we've been in search of comparative advantage since all through modern history. We've never been granted one like this before and we have to seize it. Well let me ask you about the COP. You said to quote you in your speech that we've seen many fine and flowery speeches in recent years but they haven't translated into ambition and intent when it comes to the closed-door discussions and the decisions and yet you sounded quite positive about the prospects for real progress at the COP. Why? Why are you so positive? Well we'll see because I mean I choose to be positive because of digital alternative but it gets me out of bed to you know to do the one o'clock in the morning calls with the international counterparts in the lead up to COP to say well we have to make this work. I do seriously take some heart from the sunny lands agreement. I think that is you know that's a big deal. Even a small deal could be a big deal when it's the United States and China working together on a thing like climate change. So that gives me a heart but it will be hard. The G20 was very hard work and my point about fine and flowery speeches is one I made in the plenary session and I took an Australian perspective to say you know we're going around the room of all the ministers giving our G20 contributions and we're all saying you know how important it is that we will come together and act and I said this is all very well but you want negotiators downstairs are blocking progress. You can't give a flowery speech up here and instruct your negotiators to block progress downstairs. My friend the Canadian minister sitting next to me went after me and said I can't be as blunt as Australia but I agree with him. So that's the sort of in an environment where the geopolitical environment has gotten worse since the last COP. I mean the worst last COP we were dealing with Ukraine and now we're obviously dealing with the Middle East as well. So the geopolitical just general vibe has made those discussions harder. I will say one of the reasons I have some confidence is that the COP president, Sultan al-Jabba is doing a good job. I know he's the plant was controversial and I know not everybody saw it that way but I call it as I see it and he's constantly on the phone to me. He's constantly sending text messages. How can we work on this issue? What do you suggest we do about that? How can we work the Pacific on this? That's a very active COP president and he really wants a good outcome. So he'll be working very hard and we'll be giving whatever support we can in leading the discussions for a good outcome and we'll see look he might not work but we can leave nothing on the field. All right finally let me ask you about loss and damage and differentiated responsibilities because you use some very interesting language today. You said the world wasn't set in stone in 1992. The world has changed and so the list of countries who receive contributions to assist in combating climate change and those who make contributions are not set in stone either. You said it's time to have a discussion about changing responsibilities. Tell us a little bit more about that. Are you talking about countries like China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil? These are the kinds of countries. How big a deal is this? How important is this? I think I think it's an important conversation. You can go through the list of countries who are poor in 1992 and are not poor now and you know you've mentioned some of them and there'll be a few others. It's important for a couple of reasons Michael. One because it is about maximizing the flow of funds to vulnerable countries. You know if you've got countries in the now rich who are sitting on the sidelines and not putting into these funds then the funds aren't going to be as big. It's as simple as that. It's also frankly about in developed countries winning community support. We saw when I supported the loss and damage proposals at COP questions being asked in parliament by the opposition to say why is Australia doing this? I had to answer questions when I got back saying how could you possibly sign a blank check to China? Which was of course not what it was about but if you're going to bring communities with you and explain this is really important because you've got these very vulnerable countries here who are really up against it and they're very in need of support. It's a it's a legitimate question for taxpayers whether they be in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada or Germany or Japan to ask well hang on all right but if we're putting in one of those countries and if you're really going to make this case then I think you have to have an answer to that. So it's a multifaceted problem but the solution does lead me on all on all those issues to say well it's time to have that conversation seriously. All right it's time for me to take some audience questions. I can see one of my colleagues here. I'm going to ask people, participants to wait for the microphone and then just give us your name and any affiliation you'd like to mention and then ask a short question please. Hi I'm Michelle Lines. I'm a climate change research fellow at the Lower Institute. Minister thank you for a really detailed and candid speech. Now you very powerfully advocated for reforms of the multilateral development banks and that advocated for Australia to be a progressive partner I mean in advancing those reforms but progress has been very slow as you also noted and there is a real sort of imperative to act quickly with the rising emissions levels around the world. So I was interested in your views on what is the way forward and between those two tensions and are there broader changes that are needed to the international sort of financial architecture to accelerate investment in the transition to its your own missions? I think thank you for the question. I think yes we do need to do more and and do more faster. It varies from MDB to MDB I mean the World Bank I'll be typically Australian you know in Australian fashion but you has been appalling in the past but a big step forward with the appointment of the new president now he has not yet been able to turn the entire ship around but I have confidence that he will do good things. The ADB the Asian Development Bank on the other hand has done a good job all the way through to their great credit and a pretty good model for others to look at. So there's much to do it's not going to be the same for a VMDB either you know they do have different roles but we as shareholders and members of the board and stakeholders have to be just pushing for more action. I think there's an issue around you know what developed countries can do with you know currency risk and etc which is there's no easy answer but there are some interesting ideas out there as to what might be able to be done across the board but ultimately money doesn't solve all the problems without money we're not going to solve any problems which is very expensive it's very expensive increasingly I mean the focus has to be on adaptation this is the other thing MDBs need to focus more on adaptation as much as strongly and passionately as I believe in mitigation I do hope that comes through the fact is we've left it too late and we're going to have to focus a lot of effort on adaptation for particularly vulnerable island states. All right in the front row we have a question and then I see a gentleman towards back. Minister first of all thank you for moving the agenda finally much appreciated I'm Vic Bansal I'm CEO of Bottle one of the things I'm really keen to hear is is CBAM on the agenda at COP or is it all countries looking at it separately just love to hear your views. The answer is Vic that all countries looking at separately it's not a COP matter it may come up in bilateral conversations the only place where it really does get discussed in a multilateral or semi-multilateral forum is the climate club which we joined recently which is not about a common sort of approach it is about trying to get complementary approaches as you know we are looking at this issue in Australia I've begun that process I now that we have a decent climate and carbon policy in Australia with the safeguards reforms it's time to look at carbon leakage there was no point looking at it in the past now that we actually have a decent policy it's time to look at how we best avoid leakage. CBAM is a very strong contender in that conversation I've asked Professor Frank Jotso who's a professor of climate economics at the ANU to lead that work within my department so I wanted my department's doing good work on it but I wanted a fresh set of eyes to come in and so Frank is leading that work he's been in Europe consulting it's a very technical piece of work and complicated it took Europe seven years to write this CBAM I don't want to particularly take that long but nor am I going to rush you know because it is a highly technical piece of work and implications you're getting it wrong significant so we will get it right but it's a it's a it's a matter for Australia it's not a matter that gets discussed in multilateral forum. Thank you I saw a gentleman yes with his hand up in the aisle hello minister Peter Hannon from The Guardian and look forward to the next commentary from you perhaps with a nice big exclusive embedded for The Guardian. Always be selling always be selling yeah can't help it I was just wondering you mentioned that it's important for economies to change and you know trajectories to change I'm just wondering at COP how difficult is it for Australia if you like to control other countries to change course if we're going to continue to approve new gas and coal projects and look at second question you probably won't want to comment on the origin takeover but if it does for it does fall over this week what role would you like to see super funds play given that we have such a huge resource base in that energy transition thanks thank you Peter and the first question I mean we can talk about coal and gas and its role and I spoke about that in a speech in Perth last week for example I mean we're going to get to 82 percent renewables which is a big lift but that still leaves 18 fossil fuels in our grid and gas usage is coming down gas supplies coming down faster oh yeah we have a shortfall in 2026-27 and if you're going to deal with that shortfall you're going to need to fill the gap all right so it's a it's a it's a very important part of the transition and gas as you know is a flexible fuel so it's it's pretty fundamental to underpinning renewable energy because you can turn a gas fire power station off and on with two minutes notice that's pretty handy for Daniel Westerman and AEMO in an 82 percent grid you can't do that with coal you can't do that with nuclear and therefore you need to ensure supply of gas to those gas fire power stations and at the moment we have a problem in 2026-27 which needs to be filled your question about how it plays in international fields I've got to say it's a very important debate and argument no other country raises it in my discussions obviously the Pacific has you know that they they have a well-known position but when I go and meet with Germany or Japan or anybody else they complete they are all dealing with very similar issues Australia's credibility in the international discussions is very very very high because they see what we're doing and dealing with and I don't see it in the same frame that you put it forward in in terms of the you're right I obviously I can't comment on the origin takeover other than to say I welcome as I said all foreign investment in renewable energy in Australia that's properly constructed and you know I very warmly appreciate the interest in Australia matter for shareholders I'm not one and so it's over to them in terms of the role of superannuation against the test that superannuation funds must always act in their members best interests of course there's a huge pool of capital there and I'd love to see it more deployed in renewable energy but they've got to meet the tests of it being in the best interests of their members it's called the sole purpose test for a reason because it's the sole purpose but it can be ticked and also heavily investing in Australia's energy transition all right who else would yes I'll take a question here from this gentleman thank you minister Bowen it's good to see the ambition I'm Lachlan from Brambles or a supply chain logistics company talking with a lot of our peers who also have very ambitious decarbonisation and sustainability agendas you've spoken a lot about stationary energy and the urgency there which is important but a lot of the carbon that's tied up in supply changes is a real focus and and I was wondering if they're the if you could talk to the coordination of the sectoral decarbonisation programs you mentioned earlier with sectors like heavy transport or freight transport and also do you see a role for sustainable plantation forestry to play a role in adaption in land use sectoral decarbonisation so thank you so we are writing six sectoral plans I'm the co-author of all of them so I write them in conjunction with the relevant minister so the industry plan is me and Ed Hughes the transport plan is me and Catherine King the resources plan is me and Madeline King etc so it'll all be you know my job is to basically make sure they all come together in a coherent fashion and they feed into our 2035 target which the cabinet will determine on my recommendation in your course they're all important because they really were suggested to me by investors to say we need to know what the government thinks is the pathway in each sector on so tested that a bit with the investors and say well you're the guys investing hundreds of millions of dollars you know surely you know and they said yeah but we really want to know what you think so that we can that helps us guide so that's where the sector plans came from and they're all important they will deal with some of the harder edged sectors so for example transport you mentioned you're pretty right light vehicles we know what to do basically you know we've cut the taxes on electric vehicles it's seen EV sales move from 2% when we came to office to closer to 9% today that's good don't get good enough but good pretty big jump in 80 months we're going to do fuel efficiency standards that's important heavy vehicles these are more complicated not to crack has to be cracked but not as not as simple as equation is I mean I don't want to make I don't want you to think that light vehicles is simple but it's simple and heavy vehicles you know the right mix between electric and hydrogen the right incentives the right the right balance of strike so that's where the sector plan will really nut some of those issues through and after heavy consultation work with the sector you talked about plantations well one of the issues is that clearly biofuels are going to play a bigger role in some form not just in transport but in industry and how do we ensure feedstock is something that we need to continue to consider and work with the sector on it is we have lots of feedstock in Australia but true decarbonisation requires a lot of feedstock as well so they're the sorts of issues that the sector plans would look at yes in the second round now they're my colleagues from the Lowe Institute thank you Georgia Hammersley also from the Lowe Institute thank you for your address minister you mentioned the recent announcement that Australia would rejoin the UN's green climate fund and so my question is beyond a financial contribution to the fund and given that Australia previously held a seat on the board what are the opportunities now for Australia to support the Pacific access more financing from the GCF which is a challenge that the region continues to face it's a great question Georgia and I've got to say the decision to rejoin the green climate fund was not a no-brainer it might appear a no-brainer but when we were considering it it was not a simple you know 9010 judgment call it was much closer to a 6040 judgment call because the green climate fund has not done a good job for the Pacific and so therefore it's a very genuine question to say well why would we rejoin if it's not doing a good job in the region that we are so focused on I actually consulted with Pacific ministers before making the decision Pacific climate ministers yeah we've got to make a decision about the green climate fund should we rejoin or not it was a finely balanced piece of advice from them too on balance the request from them was please rejoin to try and get a seat at the table to try and make them better and that had a lot of weight with me and with minister Wong and with the cabinet and the sort the problems that the Pacific have they say that the green climate fund is very difficult to navigate very difficult to comply with their owners sort of paperwork etc now we are talking about very big amounts of money and there's always going to be requirements on transparency and accountability everybody accepts that but it's just not working has it been working for the Pacific so we rejoined with a view to taking a step back in they know the green climate fund no I mean I had a team's meeting with the executive director of the green climate fund and at the point where I could say I do not know whether we're going to rejoin or not but I'm telling you the one thing holding us back is your lack of progress in the Pacific so I couldn't have been Franka and she outlined all their plans for the Pacific and how they try and lift their game and they know it's an issue and again they had some weight with us as well and I said to her if we rejoin this is not going to be the last conversation we have about the Pacific now again they're trying I know it's complicated but that was the sort of thought process that we went through we also took the decision as I said to fund the Pacific resilience facility because that is direct support for the region we are most focused on we know it will go directly to them and so that is where our effort is focused in the shorter term but we want to be back at the table of the green climate fund to at least be a participant in the conversation about how they interact with the Pacific. As you know minister there was also a very fine Loewe Institute paper arguing on balance Australia should I did I should have mentioned that I did read it during the during the considerations and it did have some bearing on those considerations. I think we've proved our policy impact thank you minister all right any yes I'll take a question from the lady there with a hand up. Sally Torgerman KPMG minister thank you for your refreshing comments I think it's really insightful just how much you have to cover in this in this portfolio and just to take your leave on being blunt. With only three renewable projects reaching financial close this year it's fair to say that's not our best year yet despite all the good work being done many challenges being raised being supply chain one of them of course but obviously the one that's really hurting this year is the increased cost of CAPEX. What role do you see investors playing in for example dealing with that in addition to perhaps playing a role in some of the climate funds like the UN that you have suggested given the climate. Thank you for the question and if I understand it correctly then tell me if I've if I've got it wrong and I get to the answer if I've misunderstood your question but look we've got work to do I mean I choose to be optimistic because as I said in an earlier context a big alternative there are good things happening so we have 3.4 gigawatts more going into this summer than we had available going through last summer that's no small thing. AMO's connections approvals in the last financial year were 6.8 gigawatts compared to 4.2 the financial year before that's a big lift and the pipeline is there as you know when we're talking about all the renewable energy investors who are looking at Australia they've got a big pipeline what I want to see is that developing to FID which is where at the moment we haven't seen that much of it now they all tell me they're sticking with it and they are moving to FID and you know over the next two years we'll see improvements but I want to see more of those now again what we can do we can help de-risk in a competitive global environment de-risking is very powerful that's what the capacity investment scheme is designed to do and does it is by very definition I won't bore those who aren't interested in the finer details of it with how it works but it's it basically says come and invest in Australia renewable energy and we will give you a guarantee about how you're going to go and it's been quite successful tomorrow I'll be making further announcements about the New South Wales element of the capacity investment scheme and we're talking big megawatts and there's more work for this capacity investment scheme to do and again in some and both at all levels of government too have to think about how quickly we're moving and how we can facilitate I mentioned the EPBC a 20% increase good problem to be managing but a problem in some senses and similar with our emo we gave a emo three million dollars more for their connection because they have to prove the sort of electrical connections as opposed to environmental approvals and it is getting connections through faster so that's a bit of a model as to what more we might be able to do to get to get more of that very encouraging pipeline through to final investment decision Chris I'm going to ask you the last question you mentioned the climate wars in your speech the climate wars didn't paint Australia in a good light they didn't deliver predictable policy framework that would encourage business investment according to Lowey Institute polling for the past six years a clear majority of Australians have said that climate change is a serious and pressing problem so I think most Australians want to believe that the climate wars are behind us can you give us some confidence and some reason for optimism for believing that I wish I could give you more optimism on this particular matter Michael I really do and you're tempting me to be partisan and I've tried pretty hard to be post-partisan tonight with one small breakout in my speech but the climate wars I think are in retreat but they're not yet over the public are the climate was in the public are over you know there's around 10% of the community who are climate change denies us with all due respect to that view it's not it's not I'm not going to convince anyone if you're a climate change known 2023 maybe I can be relatively persuasive on a good day but I'm not going to convince you now so that that part of the climate war is is is not over in terms of that they are very loud particularly social media that's 10 roughly all the poll showed maximum 15 and you've got climate activists who are very passionate and I very much welcome that passion you've got a whole bunch of middle who believe climate change is real and it should be acted upon providing it's in the economic best interests of the country and that's where you know we focus frankly our communications to remind and reassure people that is in the best interests of the country even it's a moral obligation to future generations it's a moral obligation the rest of the world even if it wasn't be smart economic thing to do that's where we have to focus our public attention to make sure that these people stay engaged in the transition and supportive of it the problem is frankly at the political level I work very closely with my state and territory colleagues I've got a meeting in Perth in two days time the majority of the state ministers are labor there's one liberal and one green you would not know who's who if you walked into the room like we're all just getting on with it getting on the task so I give due credit and that was the case in New South Wales under a liberal government it's a case with Tasmania they're just getting on with it it's not the case federally to be frank you know there is not one piece of climate legislation or climate related regulation that the federal opposition has supported in the last eight months not one and so that means we we have to do it without them and frankly I do not see that changing under current management arrangements in the Liberal Party you know that I just don't the Leader of the Opposition I do not see him changing his spots might be different if things were different in the Liberal Party there is a group in the Liberal Party in 2023 who are climate changed in us you know they're very active they're not to I suppose to their credit they don't hide it you know they're prolific you know you're senator Renick is a senator of Australia who denies the climate science prolifically every day on social media the member for Flynn is similar senator Canavan you know they just there's enough of them to effectively veto climate progressive climate policy in the alternative government of Australia so that until that changes the climate wars aren't over they're in retreat but they're not over and frankly it increased that they are increasingly irrelevant group but they're still there so we've passed all the legislation we've done everything without them but I've just got to call as I say I can think of no other way to answer your question other than to make that partisan but I think accurate point you know I it's not the way in the rest of the world in the United Kingdom the Labor Party the Tory Party and the Liberal Democrats basically have the same climate policy you know Labor Party is more ambitious particularly you know in the very recent period but you know the fundamentals are set I met before the New Zealand election I was in Wellington I met with my friend the minister I met with the shadow minister shadow minister's position was extraordinarily progressive by Australian standards you know so there's no climate change denial that I encountered in the new New Zealand government but I do encounter it in the alternative government in Australia and frankly it's gotten worse you know it's gotten worse since the May election in my view things have gone backwards in terms of the political engagement of the opposition in the challenge of our time they're just not engaged at all sorry to be so pessimistic about that last point I to be very clear with you if I thought there was a way of changing that under current management I would I would compromise I would sit down with the opposition I would say listen I've got a certain way of doing things but I will compromise if it means bipartisanship because it will send the message to investors doesn't matter who's in government nothing's going to change you can invest here safely it's not going to work if it works one day I'll be in like Flynn I'll be you know in in arguing for bipartisan position for that certainty but I see very a little prospect of it in the foreseeable future well I'm sorry to drag you back from optimism to pessimism and from the commanding heights of the international economy to Canberra but I do want to thank you Chris for coming tonight forgiving a very meaty speech for answering our questions I think nobody is any doubt that ministers in command of his brief took questions on all manner of all manner of issues and I think everybody wishes the best of luck to you and all the delegates at the COP in the hope that you and your colleagues come up with meaningful policies and changes that help us to avoid dangerous global responsibility it's a global warming it's a big responsibility so thank you for taking it on and thank you for giving us a preview into Australia's approach at the COP thank you Chris Bowen