Anthony Albanese strutted out onto the Cop31 stage to crow about climate change. Cop31 is a place where the alpha roosters have been locked up so the weak beta- bantams can strut their stuff. If they were serious about reducing emissions, nuclear energy would be front and centre. If Albanese was serious about addressing the global boiling nonsense, he would have shut down coal. But he didn’t mention the word.

The official transcript of Albanese’s Cop31 Leaders’ Summit speech did not include the words ‘coal’, ‘fossil fuels’, ‘gas’, or ‘oil’. There was no reference to shutting down, phasing out, or transitioning away from coal or fossil fuels. The speech focused on Australia’s renewables growth, rooftop solar and batteries, Pacific Island vulnerability, climate finance, and the Pacific Resilience Facility.

In my opinion, Albanese is not serious about addressing climate change or carbon emissions. However, the Labor government is serious about extending the network of grifters to the Pacific and beyond.

Albanese was unable to say in his speech what Cop31 is all about – ending coal. That would be political suicide for him at home.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the quiet part out loud. He said that fossil fuels ‘must go the way of the dinosaurs’ and that ‘the dinosaurs did not have a lobby. Fossil fuels do’. He also called for no new coal expansion and a faster transition away from fossil fuels.

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of steel-making (metallurgical) coal and the second-largest exporter of power-station (thermal) coal by volume. In 2024, roughly 362 million tonnes of coal in total were shipped overseas. This was about 24 per cent of the global seaborne coal trade.

At around US$56.5 billion, Australia earnt (and continues to earn) more from coal exports than any other country. Forecasts by the Department of Industry Resources and Energy put power-station coal exports at about 209 megatonnes in 2026-27, reducing only slightly to 199 megatonnes by 2030-31.

Steel-making coal volumes are forecast to rise slightly over the same period. Combined power-station and steel-making coal export earnings are still in the tens of billions of dollars annually and remain a major component of Australia’s resource exports.

Any wonder Albanese didn’t say a word.

Instead, the Labor government is funding free coffee for everyone at Cop31 to the tune of $32 million. Meanwhile, cafes in Australia are struggling to make ends meet, and ordinary Australians are struggling to pay for their daily coffee.

Albanese and Bowen know they have to tread softly with our mining sector. They risk not only upsetting Australia’s wealthiest individuals, but also the mining industry unions.

That explains why since 2022, the Albanese government has approved dozens of coal, oil, and gas projects and extensions. These are not short-term projects: the North West Shelf extension runs to 2070, and the 1,695-well Australia Pacific LNG expansion has been approved out to 2081.

Hardly backing the UN Secretary-General’s call to end fossil fuels.

Australians are probably sick of hearing about it, but the record Australian delegation of 193 officials and the $148 million budget allocation over three years for Australia’s Cop31 role, plus the roughly $2.3 million already committed for the Antalya trip is no small price to go on the world stage and say nothing.

I’ve banged on about nuclear before, but it must be said. If the goal is rapid, reliable emissions reduction, nuclear is the only technology that has actually displaced coal at scale in places like France, Sweden, and South Korea. Australia has the uranium, the geology, and the technical capacity, yet neither Albanese nor Bowen put it on the table at Cop31.

Labor’s grifting instinct is the real reason Australian taxpayers are funding the ultimate swan in Turkey. They’re taking us for geese.

Albanese has announced Australia’s $100 million contribution to the Pacific Resilience Facility. This is in addition to the pre-Cop shocker in Tuvalu and Fiji where Bowen could barely keep his eyes open. Albanese’s speech spent more time on Pacific finance and vulnerability than on the coal that still underwrites Australia’s export income.

There’s a reason for this. It allows Albanese and Bowen to pretend to be statesmen. The best Australian statesmen did so through superior intellect, diplomatic and negotiation skills, and forethought.

Albanese and Bowen do statesmanship through other people’s money. They’re running out of it at home and now they’re splashing it across the Pacific. The hubris is palpable.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you’d like to support his writing, please shout him a drink over at Donorbox.