It is not often we have cause to praise Turkey, but last week they saved the taxpayer $1.5 billion.
Well, sort of…
As with all wastage of public money, it depends on how you look at it.
Hosting the next COP conference was set to be an expensive absurdity for Australia and a vanity project for the Climate Change and Energy Minister.
There are few things less environmentally friendly than billionaires arriving en masse in private jets to lecture the peasants about their climate footprint. COP is mostly a series of tedious speeches, which elder statesmen nap through, greased by public pledges to the climate-needy whose islands always seem to be sinking at an indeterminate rate.
COP conferences trap Western leaders in this bizarre competition to prove their loyalty to the United Nations.
A futile mission when you consider the UN is undermined by China’s diligent campaign to buy off the third-world voting power via its (definitely not carbon neutral) Belt and Road development. As of 2025, 150 countries have signed on, many with debts to Beijing they can never repay.
This might explain why China’s climate sins go unnoticed by the UN.
Needless to say, the only rising tides on offer are derived from the sea of public money lapping at the Global South.
If the climate apocalypse keeps you up at night, the most efficient way for Australia to slash its carbon emissions would be to ground the Prime Minister, who is doing his very best to live up to his Airbus Albo nickname. Visiting a new country every week, Anthony Albanese seems to spend more time in the air than he does in Canberra.
I digress…
If COP is such a disaster, why did Turkey fight so hard to host it?
According to Carbon-Pulse:
‘Turkish sources said Erdogan wants to build international legitimacy and global leadership for his country by hosting major geopolitical events such as UN climate negotiations and next year’s Nato summit.’
Prestige? No. That is not the reason.
An interesting point often overlooked is Turkey’s recent ratification of the Paris Agreement and setting of a Net Zero 2053 target aligning with UN climate goals.
Because Turkey likes to identify as a ‘developing country’, it is now allowed to access the UN’s Green Climate Fund.
(Follow the link to see how much you have paid.)
The Green Climate Fund is best described as a bait laid out to attract virtue-hungry geopolitical prey.
Australia pulled out of the fund in 2018 and then rejoined in 2023. We have already paid a fortune into the fund (more than $200 million). This is money that could have been spent improving Australia. We also paid $50 million to a different UN fund for ‘loss and damage from climate change’.
These figures are a drop in the ocean.
And this particular $200 million was not spent by a Labor government, but rather a 2014 Liberal government with Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop making their joint announcement:
‘The pledge to the Green Climate Fund will facilitate private sector-led economic growth in the Indo-Pacific region with a particular focus on investment in infrastructure, energy, forestry … and emissions reductions programs.’
With Julie Bishop insisting Australia has ‘a strong track record in delivering climate finance’.
No wonder the Liberals are having so much trouble breaking free of Net Zero. They are probably afraid of all the follow-up questions such as, ‘How much money did you waste on other countries who were clearly playing us for fools?’
These are expensive mistakes which no one has apologised for.
Australian taxpayers continue to be fleeced of fortunes which pool into international climate funds where these funds end up in the hands of regimes which are more likely to buy weapons than plant a tree.
We have no idea how much of our money has been spent because successive governments have done their best to bury the details.
There is no tally. No ledger. No audit.
Political leaders are able to claim the climate transition is cheap because they refuse to show us the figures.
How much have we spent on green things? Tens of billions? Hundreds of billions? Leave your best guess in the comments.
Chris Bowen is simply the latest in a long line of politicians who have betrayed Australia to the global wealth transfer scheme that uses ‘environmentalism’ to enrich bureaucracies.
While a COP conference costs Australia money, a ‘developing nation’ is able to exploit a UN event for profit.
It is no wonder Turkey was keen. It has already received billions in climate finance including at least $3 billion from signing the Paris Agreement.
Their leadership is trying to work out how much more re-washed Western cash can be dragged out on the promise of a distant 2053 target which, if China and India are any sort of measure, the UN has no intention of enforcing.
The COP conference will also align with the launch of an emissions trading scheme in Turkey.
When Turkey says it wants to encourage ‘solidarity between rich and poor countries’ at the summit, we should remember some other choice things the President of Turkey has said. In 2019, Erdogan threatened to unleash millions of refugees on the European Union as punishment for activities in Syria. In recent years, it has offered safe harbour to Hamas leaders. Greece and Cyprus are also having significant problems with Turkey sniffing around their gas exploration areas.
Other reasons that Turkey had the upper hand on Bowen for the COP contest could relate to the First Lady, Emine Erdogan, who has been heavily involved in the UN’s climate projects.
The Zero Waste project, for instance, was launched under her leadership and won Turkey the Global Goals Action Award. Her involvement in high-level UN green projects is extensive. In other words, she has put in more leg-work than Bowen.
It is quite extraordinary how desperately Labor wanted to host this conference. According to the Carbon-Pulse:
‘Australia is understood to have made several offers to Turkey in exchange for its concession, including an economic package that includes support for its rare earth minerals sector.’
Chris Bowen won’t walk away empty handed. He is set to serve as the COP President for Negotiations.
‘As COP President of Negotiations, I would have all the powers to manage, to handle the negotiations, to appoint facilities, to draft text, and to issue cover decisions.’
Well, Chris Bowen can enjoy his extensive power over a meaningless talkfest. It is safer than letting him draft policy in Canberra.
Meanwhile, the Opposition has chirped up, accusing him of being a ‘part-time energy minister’.
‘Australians don’t need a part-time energy minister, a minister for global UN summits, someone who’s clearly excited about the prospect of globe-trotting to a variety of countries when his real job is here at home, focusing on the one thing that we are focused on and that is how you bring electricity prices down.
‘I’m not sure where the Prime Minister is coming from when he backs in this appointment. I’ve asked him every single day this week and I’ll continue to do that today. Prime Minister, Energy Minister, when are electricity prices coming down?’
It wasn’t exactly a savage nickname, gifted by Sussan Ley.
‘Boeing Bowen’ and ‘Blackout Bowen’ are preferable.
Even Grok did a better job with, ‘Net Zero Nero’, ‘Windmill Whisperer’, ‘Gaslight Bowen’, ‘Solar Sultan’, ‘The Honourable Member for Beijing’s Spare Coal Plants’, and the ‘Treasurer’s Favourite ATM’.
In any case, while Chris Bowen is sipping his champagne and nibbling on Brazil nuts, we are starting to get a clearer picture of why the Coalition refuses to pull out of the Paris Agreement.
Far from being dead and buried, as some attempt to pretend, it remains a powerful tool for absconding with public money and the keystone of greedy climate funds that rob Australia of its wealth.
Now would be the time for the Coalition to drag all of its skeletons out of the closet and expose the UN and Paris Agreement for its economic drain on the Treasury.
The Coalition say they want to have it out on the economic front? Well, let’s see them sacrifice Labor’s sacred cow of climate change.
What, no takers?
