Statement from Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, Australian Industry Group on COP31:
The negotiated outcome of Australia's bid to host COP31 falls short of hopes that Australia could take clear leadership over the next year of important international discussions at the intersection of emissions, energy and the economy as business and the community continues to grapple with climate policy.
Despite the inability to break the diplomatic deadlock, Australia will still hold the pen on negotiations over the next year ahead of the 2026 COP to be held in Türkiye. The risk, as time goes on, is Australia does all the grunt work but Türkiye is able to frame the final outcomes at the next COP.
The outcome is certainly better than a shrunken COP defaulting to Bonn, which would have been a terrible outcome for our region and the whole process.
Australia can still showcase our industrial, energy and resource potential at COP31. We will need to ramp up our presence further from the strong showing of recent years.
The voice of business is vital at these negotiations to turn diplomatic proposals into economic reality. The Australian Industry Group looks forward to working with TUSIAD, the Turkish business federation, and the global business community to ensure that voice is strong.
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