Boeing Bowen heads up Turkey’s COP-out

Chris Bowen is not about leadership, he is all about frequent-flyer diplomacy.

Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, once stood before the nation and promised that Labor’s ‘Powering Australia’ plan would slash household power bills by $275 a year by 2025. That was the headline figure, repeated ad nauseam during the 2022 election campaign.

With 2025 now almost behind us, the average household is not $275 better off, it is hundreds of dollars worse off. Wholesale electricity prices have repeatedly spiked, retail offers have soared, and the subsidised-for-rich-people surge in rooftop solar and batteries has done precisely nothing to shield everyday consumers from the brutal reality of a grid that would crumble in the night without coal and gas.

Yet instead of staying home to fix the mess in his own portfolio, Mr Bowen is packing his bags for yet another international talk-fest.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Boeing Bowen heads up Turkey’s COP-out.

CHRIS BOWEN offered COP consolation prize chairing next climate talk-fest in Turkey.

"The irony is almost too rich. The man who cannot keep the lights on affordably at home will now lecture the world on climate ambition from the chair of the United Nations climate conference."… pic.twitter.com/Zzgiikf1JC

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) November 21, 2025