Australia has formally given up its bid to host next year's United Nations climate summit, under a deal which will see COP31 held in Türkiye while Australia takes on the role of COP President for the negotiations.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, who had been supportive of the bid for Adelaide to host, was critical of the UN's processes, describing them as "obscene".
"[The prime minister] has taken a position to try and navigate the frankly obscene process that exists internationally," he told reporters in Adelaide.
"It is clear that the rest of the world largely would have preferred COP to be in Adelaide but Türkiye wanted to exercise their veto right which then necessitated a judgement and at the prime ministerial level of our federal government to contemplate a negotiation which they pursued."
He said South Australia "did our best" but "fell short".
Greenpeace spokesperson Simon Bradshaw said "there's no hiding this is a real disappointment."
"A COP in the Australia Pacific would've been a tremendous opportunity to be accelerating global climate action to really be getting behind that long legacy of Pacific Climate leadership.
"But really wherever the venue, whatever the arrangement, the task remains the same. We now need to be doing everything we can to drive the phase out of fossil fuels and to ensure we limit warming to 1.5 degrees."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised the decision as "a big win", despite the government spending months campaigning to host the summit.
"We're in a situation where it would not have advantaged multilateral action on climate change if we couldn't even agree on where a conference was, would have been a real setback," he told ABC Radio Perth on Thursday.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen outlined the model in Belem, Brazil, saying it met Australia's three objectives: elevating Pacific voices, supporting multilateralism, and safeguarding national interests.
"There's a little way to go," he said, with the Western Europe and Others Group to meet again within 24 hours, "but a model in which pre-COP is hosted in the Pacific … and the COP is held in Türkiye, but Australia, myself, is appointed COP President for Negotiations … is an outcome which achieves those objectives."
Bowen said the pre-COP event would be held in a Pacific Island nation and would double as a pledging meeting for the Pacific Resilience Fund.
The summit itself would take place in Türkiye, avoiding a collapse of negotiations that would have forced COP31 to default to Bonn, Germany.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said it was "an embarrassing outcome".
"It was clear from the start that the government didn’t really want to host a climate summit.
"The prime minister never really wanted to host a climate conference if it meant being honest about the future of coal and gas while his mining corporation mates are watching. If COP came to Australia, it would have been a good opportunity for the world’s leaders to grill Labor for their terrible track record on climate action."
Bowen defends concession
Bowen stressed the compromise was necessary to avoid the worst-case scenario: "with a lack of leadership, no COP President in place, no plan," he said.
"That would mean 12 months with a lack of leadership … that would be irresponsible for multilateralism."
Asked whether Australia had made a major concession, Bowen said Türkiye had also given ground.
He clarified the split presidency model: Türkiye would be COP president for hosting and logistics, while he would hold "all the powers of COP presidency to manage the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text, and to issue the cover decision."
Opposition leader Sussan Ley said she believed Türkiye is doing the Australian government a favour.
"The fact that this government even considered spending $2 billion of taxpayers money on this exercise just goes to show how their priorities are all wrong," she said on Thursday.
"Chris Bowen is very disappointed today, I am sure, but Australians should be very pleased with the decision that was taken away from this country and made overseas."
While refusing to say exactly how much the federal government has spent on drawing the COP31 summit to Australia, Albanese defended the cost as a "relatively small amount".
Bowen said some would be disappointed, but more would have been disappointed "if it had gone to Bonn without a COP President in place".
"This is a better outcome than that."
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