Australia has backed a pledge at Cop28 climate summit to triple global renewable energy capacity and double the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said the Albanese government had joined 117 other countries in making the pledge, reiterating an agreement reached by G20 countries in September.
The renewable energy agreement was one of a series of headline declarations made as more than 100 global leaders arrived in the United Arab Emirates for the opening days of the two-week conference.
Anthony Albanese is not attending, and Bowen is not due to fly to Dubai until later this week for the event’s final week, when ministers will attempt to wrangle a consensus position on how to lift action to tackle the climate crisis in the face of rising geopolitical tensions. Australia was represented at the opening plenary by its climate change ambassador, Kristin Tilley.
Bowen said Australia had joined other major energy exporters, including the US, Canada and Norway, in supporting the renewables and energy efficiency push.
“We know that renewables are the cleanest and cheapest form of energy, and that energy efficiency can also help drive down bills and emissions,” he said in a statement. “For emissions to go down around the world, we need a big international push. Australia has the resources and the smarts to help supply the world with clean energy technologies to drive down those emissions while spurring new Australian industry.”
The renewable energy pledge was welcomed by climate campaigners and analysts. Tim Buckley, director of the independent think tank Clean Energy Finance, said it was excellent to see Australia backing the commitment. He said falling costs had made the transition to renewables “an entirely economically sensible and viable commitment”.
“Two years ago this would have been seen as next to impossible, but with China having transformed the world’s capability to deliver on decarbonisation this goal will collectively bend the climate trajectory towards what the science clearly dictates. Propelled by China, the doubling of global solar module, battery and electric vehicle manufacturing capacity every two years is driving costs down dramatically,” he said.
“It is now time for the world and Australia to kick the fossil fuel habit. [Australia] can’t continue to approve, dig and ship coal and gas if it is to honour its climate commitments and help keep warming to the critical 1.5C threshold.”
Barry Traill, director of the advocacy organisation Solutions for Climate Australia, said the support for tripling renewable energy was a “bright spot” at a summit “tainted by fossil fuel industry influence”. He said he hoped Bowen would “use his flight to Dubai to gear up to fight in the negotiation rooms” to ensure the renewables and energy efficiency pledges were enshrined in the final Cop28 agreement.
“We also hope and expect that the Australian government will build on this major commitment by supporting the other two fundamental parallel commitments required globally to fix climate change: explicit commitments to phase out the main cause of climate change, the mining and burning of oil, gas and coal, and stronger climate finance arrangements to support poorer countries and their energy transition to clean, cheap renewable power,” he said.
Speaking on the Guardian’s Australian politics podcast on Saturday, Bowen said he supported strengthening mitigation efforts around the world, but would not be drawn on whether Australia would explicitly push for language to phase out fossil fuels or phase out unabated fossil fuel.
“We will be in there arguing for a very sensible strengthening [of language],” Bowen said. “We’ll see what coalition emerges internationally in good company, but we’ll be in that good company. Unlike previous [Cops] when Australia was in very bad company, blocking efforts, I’ll be there working for a sensible outcome to get consensus across the board.”
Australia is the chair of the “umbrella group” of countries at the talks, which includes the US, UK, New Zealand, Canada, Ukraine, Israel and Norway. Bowen said he intended “to be quite an active chair” and that meant “bringing other countries with us” to help reach a consensus.
“It’s not just about mitigation – that is my No 1 priority, frankly – but also there’s loss and damage [funding], there’s the global stocktake [of national commitments], there’s global finance action, there’s adaptation pledges. This is a very busy Cop agenda,” he said.
An initial draft Cop text released on Saturday listed included a range of expressions to be debated, including that either fossil fuels or coal should be “phased out” or “phased down”. The same applied to fossil fuel subsidies. Saudi Arabia, China and India have previously resisted calls to agree that all fossil fuels should be phased out.
Australia was also among more than 100 countries to back declarations pledging to strengthen climate action in healthcare and farming. It did not sign up to a commitment by 22 countries, including the US, Canada, Japan and Britain, to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
The Albanese government is hoping to win support for Australia to host Cop31 in 2026 with Pacific countries, but it is unclear whether a decision will be made in Dubai. The UN climate process faces a more pressing decision on where next year’s annual summit will be held. It is due to be hosted in eastern Europe but Russia has blocked agreement on which country will take the reins.