Albanese names Adelaide as host of COP31, while experts remind Labor that coal must go

Adelaide will host the 2026 United Nations climate conference if Labor wins back the federal government, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed today. 

The joint Australia-Pacific Islands joint bid is up against Turkey, which has so far resisted lobbying to drop out of the running to host the 31st climate Conference of Parties (COP).

But while Albanese lauded South Australia’s leadership in renewable energy and pilloried the opposition’s claims around costs, his announcement also drew criticism that Australia, and federal Labor, could also do more to phase out fossil fuels. 

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young pointedly noted that if Australia wants to be a leader in the Pacific on climate issues, it must stop ignoring the elephant in the room. 

“Globally, 2024 was the hottest year on record and South Australia is feeling the impacts of climate change from droughts to extreme heat and bushfires,” she said in a statement. 

“To be a leader in our region Australia must stop ignoring the pleas from our Pacific neighbours, who are clear in their calls for no new coal and gas.

“It is no use hosting a climate change conference, if our government remains unwilling to take the strong action on climate change that we desperately need.”

The winning bid for COP31 host won’t be announced until June, after the federal election which is set for 3 May. 

Climate flashpoint in the Pacific

By openly backing a city as COP31 host, Albanese has highlighted another area where his and Dutton’s political visions for Australia and its place in the world are diverging.

“When you look at the work that the Premier is doing in renewables leading Australia, as South Australia has for a long period of time, then I can’t think of anywhere better than South Australia,” Albanese said in Adelaide today. 

“It’s a joint bid. It’s one of the ways that we’ve repaired the relationship with the Pacific. Australia was in the naughty corner with a couple of other countries, only a couple, when it came to climate action and our response. And that is why it is so important.”  

Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he will dump the bid, claiming the cost would be tens of billions of dollars but without providing any evidence for that price tag. 

Dutton’s antagonistic position over COP31 isn’t doing anything to repair his reputation with Pacific colleagues, who are still smarting over his 2015 “hot mic” gaffe when he was caught joking about how “time doesn’t mean anything when you’re, you know, about to have water lapping at your door.”

Australia’s strategic interests in the Pacific should warrant Dutton to take more care in the region, says The Australia Institute special adviser at the international and security affairs program, Allan Behm.

“We have fundamental strategic interests at play in the Pacific, particularly in ensuring Australia is the partner of choice for Pacific nations as they go about securing their own medium to long-term strategic interests,” he said in a statement. 

“Given all of our preoccupations with apparent threats from China, you would have thought that the Leader of the Opposition would be pretty well attuned to the fact we are seeking to be the partner of first choice in the Pacific.

“What Mr Dutton is saying is not supported by the facts. It completely misunderstands the nature of the global security problem that climate change confronts the world with. He also doesn’t understand the costing of COP conferences. Climate change conferences of this kind are actually a net earner.”

Green trade fair

While Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were said to be interested in hosting in November last year, Adelaide has been openly campaigning to win the rights. 

South Australia is the country’s leading state on renewable energy adoption, averaging just over 70 per cent wind and solar power penetration in its grid over the last 12 months, according to Open Electricity. 

The state is on track to hit 100 per cent renewables penetration by 2027.

But it’s the net benefits the city is after, says Smart Energy Council fellow Thom Woodroofe.

“Adelaide is the renewables capital of Australia and the staging ground for our transition to becoming a green industrial export superpower. If Australia’s bid is successful, it now stands to reap an immediate economic benefit equivalent to hosting four AFL grand finals,” he said in a statement

“COPs are so much more than negotiations – they are the world’s largest green trade fairs. Importantly, South Australia has also said it is prepared to reach into its own pocket to help the government with the initial outlay of hosting COP31, which stands to deliver a $1 billion windfall for Australia.”

Woodroofe says Adelaide isn’t a natural choice for a Pacific-oriented COP but the federal government could hold a summit for world leaders beforehand on the east coast “looking outward to the Pacific”, as Brazil is doing before the COP in Belém this year.

 “This would allow Australia and the Pacific to even more firmly stamp their impact on the international climate stage, including through a landmark initiative decoupled from the technical world of the UNFCCC negotiations – and to do so at a time when climate is not on the G20 agenda,” he says.