Australia is pushing to host a Cop meeting – if successful it would be forced to ramp up climate action | Adam Morton

Winning the 2024 climate talks could pressure Australia to rejoin the Green Climate Fund, increase its 2035 emissions target, and ditch new coal and gas developments

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If the Albanese government has its way, in two years' time up to 20,000 people - political leaders, diplomats, lobbyists, activists and professional greenwashers - will spend a fortnight in Sydney (or maybe Brisbane or Melbourne) in what will inevitably be described as an attempt to save the planet.

Labor promised before the election that if it won power it would bid to host a Cop (a conference of the parties to the United Nations framework convention on climate change), hopefully in partnership with Pacific island neighbours.