# How do you broker UN climate talks when your own country is a big coal and gas exporter? Chris Bowen is about to find out

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/how-do-you-broker-un-climate-talks-when-your-own-country-is-a-big-coal-and-gas-exporter-chris-bowen-is-about-to-find-out/
- Published: 2026-11-07T19:00:20+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-07T19:19:38+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/nov/08/chris-bowen-cop31-experts-condemn-australia-coal-gas-approvals
- Topics: Climate, Environment, Geopolitics, Government, Politics, Science, World

## Key points

- Australia is leading Cop31 negotiations while exporting large amounts of coal and gas.
- The proposed 2035 goal would raise electricity’s share of global energy use to 35%.
- A fossil fuel transition plan is absent from the official agenda.

## Summary

Australia has been urged to use its role in leading negotiations at the UN’s Cop31 climate summit to push for a global agreement to move away from fossil fuels. Climate minister Chris Bowen will seek consensus among nearly 200 countries, despite Australia’s large coal and gas export industries, as delegates meet amid an oil price crisis and rising climate concerns.

Australia is the world’s second-largest exporter of thermal coal and largest exporter of steelmaking coal, and supplies about a fifth of global liquefied natural gas exports. The government expects coal, gas and oil exports to be worth A$141bn this financial year. Talks will include a proposed goal for electricity to provide 35% of global final energy use by 2035, but a plan for countries to phase out fossil fuels is not on the official agenda; scientist Bill Hare has urged Australia to advance that work.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.