Chris Bowen wants to use his stint as the world’s chief climate negotiator to lobby Saudi Arabia and others to stop resisting progress at UN summits, heeding calls for a “hard-nosed” approach in dealing with big emitters obstructing the transition.
Appointed “president of negotiations” for Cop31 under the deal that handed Turkey hosting rights for the conference, Australia’s climate change and energy minister has told Guardian Australia a focus ahead of the summit would be talking to countries “with whom we don’t traditionally agree”.
Bowen mentioned Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Gulf state accused of repeatedly obstructing efforts at UN summits to accelerate the phaseout of fossil fuels.
“We won’t get anywhere if we just have a jamboree of the willing,” Bowen said.
“We need to have a Cop which really tries to cross some of those bridges that have been very difficult to cross in recent Cops.”
Asked how that would be achieved, Bowen said: “engagement, engagement, engagement”.
