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July 8, 2025
Taxpayers spent more than $1.5m sending at least 75 public servants to a UN climate change summit in Azerbaijan last year at an average cost of $20,000 per head.
The Department of Climate Change and Energy has also revealed that at the three previous Conference of the Parties (COP) summits, the Australian pavilion on the conference floor cost about $1m a time. This was on top of the $102,343.69 spent on sending Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and his staff to COP29, and the $20,084.97 to send Assistant Climate Change Minister Josh Wilson to the same summit. In all, the travel bill came to more than $1,672,000.
A compilation of answers to questions on notice asked by then opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume shows taxpayers have been slugged with millions for climate summit costs.
Analysis by The Australian shows at least 75 public servants attended the COP in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024.
This included 42 officials from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; 25 from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; two each from CSIRO, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Department of Finance; and one from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, and another from the Department of Health and Aged Care.
The total cost was $1,549,699 for those 75 people.
Separately, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority reported Mr Bowen's travel fares to COP29 came to $33,049.03, his incidental expenses cost $693, and his staff's travel cost $68,601.66. Assistant Climate Change Minister Josh Wilson's travel cost a total $20,084.97.
Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson demanded answers. "On Labor's watch, power prices and emissions are both up and so is spending extravagant sums of taxpayers' money on climate junkets," he said. "The Albanese government must justify why they sent almost 100 people ... to a talkfest. While Australians were struggling to pay their electricity bills, Chris Bowen, Josh Wilson, and at least seven government departments and agencies were travelling on the taxpayer dime with nothing to show for it."
Mr Bowen's office fired back. "The LNP doesn't believe in net zero anymore and now apparently they don't believe in sending ministers to COP either," a spokesperson said. "Given Scott Morrison took 39 people to the Glasgow COP, they are also nothing more than hypocrites."
Separate documents also revealed the costs associated with previous COP summits. The Australian pavilion at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 cost "roughly $1,075,000", the department said. A summit the following year, held at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, cost $971,682, and the year after that, held in Dubai, cost $831,549.
Australia is seeking to host COP31 in 2026, and the department said it was unable to estimate how much it would cost.
"A number of design decisions are still being developed and consulted on," it said. "These include the host city, the COP agenda, arrangement to host in partnership with the Pacific, and other issues still to be confirmed. It is not possible to provide an accurate estimate ... at this time."