UN COP summit: Voters support bringing climate talks to Australia

As Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen prepares to jet off to Egypt for this year's COP summit, the Australia Institute's latest annual Climate of the Nation poll reveals strong support for bringing the major global event to our shores.

The results also reaffirm nationwide support for banning the sale of new fossil fuel-powered cars beyond 2035 - a policy which the ACT government has already adopted.

Federal Labor went to the election promising to bid to host the UN climate talks in partnership with Pacific nations, as part of an attempt to rebuild Australia's reputation on climate action after the Coalition's near-decade in office.

The Albanese government earlier this year nominated 2024 as its preferred year to stage the event for the first time in Australia, although experts now believe 2026 is the more realistic option.

A successful 2024 bid was always going to be difficult because of the regional rotation system used to select the host.

Australia is part of the so-called western European and other states group, whose next turn to stage the summit isn't until 2026.

The Canberra Times understands Labor is still considering a bid for 2024, although Mr Bowen's office would not comment on the government's position.

Australia Institute climate and energy director Richie Merzian said it was understandable that the Albanese government wanted to host the event in its first term.

"But realistically, Australia has to play into the international cycle and that means bidding for 2026," Mr Merzian said.

The results of the progressive thinktank's poll, to be published on Thursday, revealed the prospect of a COP summit in Australia had strong support from voters across the political divide.

Some 71 per cent of the almost 2700 voting-age people who participated in the YouGov poll backed a bid.

It wasn't just Labor and Greens voters who supported a bid - 63 per cent of Coalition supporters were behind bringing the summit to Australia to some degree.

"There is a very strong appetite across the community, and across political persuasions, for Australia to showcase what it can deliver on climate action," Mr Merzian said.

"For so long, Australia has been known as an exporter of the problem.

"I think there's an expectation that Australia can now be an exporter of solutions, and bringing the whole world here (for a COP summit) will do that."

This month's federal budget allocated $45.8 million over six years to the government's "international climate step-up", which includes a potential COP bid.

The Labor government would need to fork out significantly more taxpayer cash if it won the right to host the summit.

The UK government reportedly paid Scotland about $170 million to stage the Glasgow summit, which attracted 120 world leaders - including former prime minister Scott Morrison - and 40,000-odd participants.

Mr Albanese has chosen to skip the event despite having been critical of Mr Morrison when he was refusing to confirm his attendance at the Glasgow conference.

The new Prime Minister defended his summit snub, saying he couldn't be in "all places at once".

"If we could do that, then I'd achieve it. And I'm sure that if I was going (to Egypt) people would say why aren't I attending Parliament," he said on Wednesday.

Mr Albanese has a packed schedule in the coming weeks, with international talks, including the G20 leaders summit in Bali, wedged between parliamentary sittings.

The Australia Institute's Climate of the Nation poll, which has been conducted annually since 2007, confirmed the high level of community concern about global warming.

Three-quarters of respondents were worried about climate change, while 79 per cent backed the phasing out of coal-fired power stations.

The poll revealed strong nationwide support for banning the sale of new fossil-fuel powered cars by 2035.

Some 64 per cent backed the policy, which was similar to the level of support in the 2021 survey.