AUSTRALIA (Commonwealth Union)_Chris Bowen, Australia’s climate change minister, will use his key speech at the COP27 UN meeting in Egypt to criticise the World Bank for failing to solve the climate catastrophe and to join calls for the international financial system to be changed.
Bowen will make a national statement at the conference in Sharm el-Sheik on Tuesday, declaring that Australia is now a “constructive, positive, and willing climate collaborator” after the Anthony Albanese-led Labor party ousted Scott Morrison’s right-wing coalition, which was widely criticised as a roadblock at climate talks. Bowen would not discuss new climate money or policies, according to an early copy of his speech supplied by his office.
He will cite changes made by the Albanese government since its election in May, such as enacting a higher 2030 emissions target (a 43% reduction from 2005 levels), joining a global pledge to reduce methane emissions, and announcing a bid with Pacific countries to co-host the 2026 UN climate conference, and say the government had “an ambitious agenda to implement”, but acknowledged that more action was required. “We understand there is more to be done,” he stated.
The minister will be joining a growing chorus of international voices calling for changes to the international financial system in order to better equip it to deal with the climate crisis, warning that the current architecture was “built for a different time” and needed to be adapted into an “inclusive climate agenda”.
“The urgency with which we must act necessitates candid discussions about where we are today, where we are heading, and how we will get there,” Bowen will add. “Some of our multinational financial institutions are rising up to this critical global responsibility. Others, though, are not. Just as we commit as individual nations to this agenda, our multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, must commit totally to it, from their purpose to their deeds.”
