Australia's Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has told the international community "Australia is back as a constructive, positive and willing climate collaborator" in a speech at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt.
"We remain committed to last year's determination to hold the world as close as possible to 1.5 degrees of warming," he told the gathered participants of COP27 on Tuesday night.
The address was backed by Australia announcing it had joined the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA), which is organised by the International Renewable Energy Agency and aims to see 380 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind infrastructure built around the world by 2030.
There is currently about 60GW of offshore wind capacity around the world.
Australia has no operational offshore wind projects, but proposals by private companies would offer a collective capacity of 40GW.
Nine other countries, including the US, UK, Japan and Germany, also joined the alliance at COP27.
Mr Bowen said offshore wind offered exciting opportunities for Australia's energy system as well as "our ambition to become a renewable energy superpower".
Australia has also joined the Global Methane Pledge since Labor took office and a pledge to end deforestation in November last year — but has so far not joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance or the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance.
Australia still in bottom 10 for climate action
Australia is ranked 51 out of 59 countries for its action on climate change, in the annual Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) by NGO Germanwatch.
Germanwatch is a prominent international climate NGO, which each year produces the comprehensive CCPI, with the input of hundreds of experts.
Australia's ranking went up from 55 in the NGO's previous report, following the more ambitious 2030 targets.
But those targets were criticised by Germanwatch for being too weak and not in line with stopping warming at 2C or 1.5C.
The report authors also criticised Australia's continued fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
Former Australian climate negotiator Richie Merzian, who is now at the Australia Institute, said Australia needed to do more to show the world it was transitioning away from fossil fuels.
"The Australian government's climate policy is a major improvement compared to the last government, but only a minor improvement when compared to other countries," he said.
Australia at international climate table
The CCPI did find a big improvement in Australia's international climate policy, noting a big shift in the country's engagement in international processes and citing its bid to host a COP — a conference of parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change — in 2026.
In Australia's national statement, Mr Bowen promised that if Australia was successful in co-hosting a COP with the Pacific nations, it would "seek to accelerate global action and harness the economic opportunities from the clean-energy transition".
Mr Bowen also criticised the role of the World Bank in addressing the climate crisis, saying "some of our international financial institutions are stepping up to this, our most important global task," and noting "others are not".
He said the World Bank must increase its spending on responding to climate change in the developing world, while "also ensuring that such funding doesn't saddle developing countries with unsustainable debt".
COP27 enters second week
Australia's National Statement came late compared to most other nations, with the majority of world leaders attending the first week of talks and leaving the second week to more junior leaders and bureaucrats.
Over the coming week, participants will discuss outstanding issues under the Paris Agreement, including how to compensate developing countries for the impacts of climate change, which they had little role in causing.
Called "loss and damage", the issue has received little attention from rich nations at previous UN climate conferences.
"We want to leave Sharm El-Sheikh with a new Loss and Damage Fund that incorporates principles of equity and historical responsibility," Bareesh Chowdhury, from the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said.
"Loss and damage is no longer a projection of something that may happen mid-century. We are experiencing it in the developing world right now.
"Waiting until COP29 for a decision is just not good enough.
"Governments have to be brave enough to make a political decision on loss and damage here and now. We can't leave without it."
Mr Bowen told Nine Media that coming to an agreement on loss and damage at COP27 was unlikely — something Mr Merzian said was an "understatement".
"My take is that developing countries keen to set up and fill a loss and damage financing facility have no leverage over developed countries at COP27 because there isn't a lot on the table," Mr Merzian said.
"This will change as 2025 approaches and developed countries seek strong mitigation commitments from all countries.
"But for now, there isn't much to bargain with."
