Australia hopes to host the 2026 Cop summit, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday, seeking to overhaul his country's reputation for foot-dragging on climate change.
“It is a good opportunity, I believe, for Australia to show and to host what is a major global event,” Mr Albanese said during a visit to Bangkok.
Mr Albanese was swept to power this year on a wave of popular anger about the pro-fossil fuel stance of Australia's decade-old conservative government.
He has since introduced a 2050 net-zero emissions target — not ambitious by world standards, but a near-revolution for Australia, one of the world's largest gas and coal producers.
He has also vowed to co-host a Cop summit with Pacific Island allies — who are under serious threat from rising sea levels and who have long criticised Australia's climate change scepticism.
Mr Albanese may have hoped to host the event before he faces re-election in 2025, but diplomatic horse-trading means 2026 is now more likely.
The UAE is to host the talks in 2023, a European country is hoping for the 2024 event and Brazil is bidding for the 2025 talks, leaving 2026 as the most likely option for Australia.
“I've had a very positive response from all of the nations that I have raised it with,” Mr Albanese said.
If the summit materialises, it would be symbolic of a dramatic shift for Australia.
At successive Cop talks, the country's delegation has been a thorn in the side of negotiators, refusing to compromise and winning deep carve-outs that significantly weakened overall agreements.
The Climate Council's Wesley Morgan — an expert on Australia and Pacific policy — described Australia's Cop bid as a “very big deal”.
It would, he said, confirm Australia's shift away from fossil fuels, improve sometimes fraught relations with the Pacific Islands and may force even Canberra to adopt more ambitious targets.
“Hopefully [it] means Australia will commit serious policy for deeper emissions cuts this decade,” he said.
Australia remains a large fossil fuel producer and coal mining provides thousands of jobs in key electoral districts.
But simmering public anger at bushfires and two years of flooding have boosted domestic support for change.
Mr Albanese has vowed to turn the sun-kissed continent into what he calls a “renewable energy superpower”.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Cases of coronavirus in the GCC as of March 15
Saudi Arabia – 103 infected, 0 dead, 1 recovered
UAE – 86 infected, 0 dead, 23 recovered
Bahrain – 210 infected, 0 dead, 44 recovered
Kuwait – 104 infected, 0 dead, 5 recovered
Qatar – 337 infected, 0 dead, 4 recovered
Oman – 19 infected, 0 dead, 9 recovered
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Monster Hunter: World
Capcom
PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 112-4 (10 ovs)
Banton 53 no
Northern Warriors 46 all out (9 ovs)
Kumara 3-10, Garton 3-10, Jordan 2-2, Prasanna 2-7
Qalandars win by six wickets
INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
THE SPECS
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Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
The Bio
Name: Lynn Davison
Profession: History teacher at Al Yasmina Academy, Abu Dhabi
Children: She has one son, Casey, 28
Hometown: Pontefract, West Yorkshire in the UK
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite Author: CJ Sansom
Favourite holiday destination: Bali
Favourite food: A Sunday roast
