Speech to Copenhagen Climate Ministerial, Copenhagen, Denmark

Your excellencies, friends. It's a privilege to be here in Copenhagen with you, such a short time after the visit by the King and Queen of Denmark to Australia with Minister Aagaard. Climate action was very much the centrepiece of their majesties, demonstrating the shared commitment and close collaboration of both countries.

I thank the Danish Government for convening this ministerial at a time when international cooperation is more important than ever. I warmly acknowledge my good friend Minister Kurum, the COP31 President-Designate. Türkiye and Australia are working closely together in a spirit of real partnership.

I can say to you at the outset that Minister Kurum and I share a commitment that COP31 will be transparent, inclusive and collaborative. We ask all Parties to come to Antalya in the same spirit in which Türkiye and Australia convene the COP. I also acknowledge that we’re joined by Ministers representing Tuvalu and Palau, vital partners with whom Australia is united to safeguard our shared future in a region on the front lines of climate change.

Can I also take the opportunity to introduce you to the Youth Champion for COP31 – Sally Higgins. Sally is a farmer from a town called Allora in rural Queensland. Sally has seen the impact of climate change on her farm and her community.

She understands that climate change impacts on people from all walks of life, but farmers in our nation are very much on the front line. Can I encourage you to get to know Sally in these few days – she will do us proud as Youth Champion for COP31. Friends, we meet at a time of heightened international concern over global energy security and geopolitical uncertainty.

The conflicts in the Middle East and Europe continue to send shockwaves through global energy markets. Higher global oil prices are putting pressure on all our citizens – from Suva to Sydney to Stockholm – pushing up prices for households and businesses. There are no easy days amid global uncertainty.

But there are clear choices. Agency or dependence. Resilience or vulnerability.

A dynamic clean energy economy or a system vulnerable to volatile energy supply chains. Energy systems based on the latest, modern technology or strapped to technologies of yesteryear. The choice is clear: we will work with our partners to make accelerating clean energy a central priority for this year.

The foundation for new jobs in industries like green metals. Harnessing the economic benefits of practical action on climate change. And making our economies more resilient to energy shocks.

We have been here before. The oil shocks of the 1970s exposed the risks of energy dependence. Those shocks kindled the first serious investments in solar and wind energy and, even, the infancy of the electric car.

Though early and imperfect, they were a beginning. We are now experiencing the biggest global energy shock in world history. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol has described the impact of this crisis as being as big as the 1970 oil shocks and the 2022 Ukraine shock combined.

But the good news is we now have renewable energy at our disposal to ensure our nations aren’t vulnerable to future shocks. Renewable energy was an experiment in the 1970s. It’s proven now as cheap and reliable – as well as low emissions.

It is now the cheapest form of energy available. It is delivering at scale. And no one can sanction the sun or blockade the wind.

The same spirit of partnership that is keeping our fuel supply secure today is what will power our transition to a more reliable energy future for tomorrow. So how do we get to that future? Electrification is gaining momentum across the world, with adoption rates for electric vehicles rising.

Last year, electric car sales globally rose by more than 20 per cent. One in four cars sold are now electric. We’re seeing the same trend in Australia.

Australians went from buying roughly one EV every 50 minutes just four years ago to buying one every three minutes in this April just gone. The flow of $2.3 trillion to clean energy globally last year tells us that markets agree. The future belongs to an energy source that is cleaner, cheaper and more reliable.

The ten years since Paris have proved our collective action works. Since the Paris Agreement was signed, our efforts have bent the curve on projected temperature rise. Countries aligned their policies, their investment signals, and their ambitions around a shared goal.

Now, nearly half of global electricity capacity is renewable. But we must be clear-eyed. Collectively, we must go faster to keep 1.5 degrees within reach.

We call on parties who have not yet submitted their 2030 NDCs to do so by COP31. If you are facing challenges with submitting your NDC, there is support, including through the NDC Partnership, which I’m pleased to co-chair. We encourage countries to submit their Biennial Transparency Reports and to develop and implement National Adaptation Plans.

Because implementing the fundamentals we agreed at Paris is how we continue to drive progress and real-world outcomes today. Progress on the Global Goal on Adaptation would mean more resilient communities, infrastructure, supply chains and economies. With every dollar invested in adaptation returning up to ten, it is another clear choice.

COP31 comes amid instability and insecurity. It is all the more urgent now to make good on our commitments and deliver real action. In Australia, we are living this transition.

In the last quarter of last year, more than half our electricity came from renewables. In Australia, the road to net zero goes through households. One in three Australian homes now capture our abundant sunlight through rooftop solar – the highest per capita rate in the world.

And we’re now leading the world in battery storage, with 10% of global battery capacity addition happening in Australia. Backing that solar with storage, more than 400,000 home batteries have been installed through our Cheaper Home Batteries program in the last year – cutting power bills and emissions for good for Australian families. The last quarter of last year also saw the highest electricity use in Australia’s history during a very hot summer.

But renewables and storage have made our grid more reliable, not less. Renewable energy saw our grid remain strong, all while delivering the lowest emissions intensity for electricity in Australian history. Australia now has more rooftop solar capacity than the entire fleet of remaining coal fired power stations across the country.

This abundant power makes wholesale daytime prices very cheap, and even negative, and means the energy market often has more electricity in the middle of the day than we currently use. That’s why, from July 1 this year, we are introducing a new retail energy offer to unlock free electricity for homes during the day – regardless of whether they have solar panels.

This cleaner, cheaper energy is integral to Australia's long-term economic vision. Because like many of you, we know that the global transition to net zero is Australia’s economic and jobs opportunity. And every effort to tackle emissions today will help avoid the worst impacts of climate change in the future.

That’s why we have set an ambitious, achievable 2035 target of 62 to 70 per cent emissions reductions. We believe that this is the right target to protect our environment and secure our prosperity and to create jobs and economic growth for our nation. But friends, none of us can forge this future alone.

The unique partnership Australia has built with Türkiye and with the Pacific spans ancient lands and the vast ocean: from the Mediterranean to the Indo-Pacific. I believe it is a model of what genuine international cooperation can look like in 2026. As President of Negotiations, Australia will be transparent.

Collaborative. Australia and Turkiye are of one mind – this should be a COP of implementation – and acceleration. There are a number of mandates from COP30 we take forward together.

The Global Implementation Accelerator will turbocharge a small number of high-impact initiatives to trigger positive global tipping points. The Belem Mission to 1.5 will shine a spotlight on what we need to do to keep 1.5 degrees within reach. It will strengthen adaptation and resilience in a changing world.

We strongly support Türkiye's COP31 Action Agenda, with its focus on linking real-world action to the Global Stocktake. And we are working for tangible results that countries can take home and implement. Friends, as President of Negotiations, we want to listen, reflect your experience and challenge each other for practical outcomes at COP31.

From the Petersberg Climate Dialogue – and since – we have heard strong and growing interest to accelerate electrification. We will work to ensure that accelerating electrification, grids, storage and clean energy investment is at the heart of our collective efforts this year. To succeed, we must mobilise finance.

That means: • delivering on the New Collective Quantified Goal • implementing our commitments on adaptation finance, and • removing barriers to finance for small island developing states and least developed countries that are bearing the heaviest impacts – ensuring those countries that need the support the most have the ability to access the finance that is available, but frustratingly elusive to Small Island Developing States.

We have heard stronger calls to support the growth of green industries. Green steel, iron, alumina and aluminium need international markets, demand, and international cooperation to scale. This builds on the Global Green Industrialisation Agenda established at COP30 in Belém.

My friends, COP31 is being delivered in partnership with the Pacific. Pacific Island Countries are living the consequences of choices made far from their shores. Rising seas.

Intensifying storms. We’re working in partnership with the Pacific family, to support a Pacific Pre-Cop in Fiji – to focus attention on their issues. The outcomes of a Pre-COP in Fiji and the leaders' meeting in Tuvalu will lay the foundations for ambitious outcomes in Antalya.

We will work with our Pacific partners to improve access to finance for vulnerable countries. Advocate for pledges to the Pacific Resilience Facility. Highlight the important role of the ocean in tackling climate change.

And keep 1.5 degrees alive. Your excellencies, there are no easy days in times of global uncertainty. But there are clear choices.

Doubt would point us backwards toward the false security of what has come before. Each step in that direction would make us more vulnerable to shocks like the one we face right now. At Petersberg – and since – our commitment has been to listen inclusively to all voices.

What we have heard describes a shared vision for the future. With cleaner, cheaper energy as the foundation of a less volatile and more prosperous world. The evidence, the best science, and every market signal point to this choice.

Agency and resilience. Not vulnerability and dependency. This dialogue arrives at a complex moment.

But we can ensure it is a decisive one. We ask every party here to come to SB64 and COP31 in the same spirit of solidarity, ambition and shared purpose that brought us to Paris a decade ago. In the same spirit that brought Türkiye, Australia and the Pacific together.

We have shown what nations can achieve when we work together. COP31 comes at a pivotal time in our global energy journey. Let us not miss the opportunity it provides.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.