CB

Chris Bowen

Things Chris Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Chris Bowen writes Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change . They have also been a guest on The Morning Edition and Zero: The Climate Race .

Recently: “How Australia gives its citizens free electricity” on Zero: The Climate Race (November 2026); “Australia Loves Solar, So Why The Diesel Addiction? Deep Dive Australia 02: Chris Bowen” on Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change (July 2026); “Australia Loves Solar, So Why The Diesel Addiction? Deep Dive Australia 02: Chris Bowen” on Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change (July 2026); “No ‘drill baby drill’ moment: Chris Bowen on oil shock’s impact on green Australia” on The Morning Edition (April 2026).

What They Said

“We introduced a new scheme 18 months ago. It provides a 30% rebate to households that put in a battery. As we speak, 589,000 houses have done it in the last 18 months… and we're putting in 2,000 every working day… We actually have more home battery capacity than the US, more than China or India. The only country now ahead of us is Germany.” — Chris Bowen, Zero: The Climate Race

Asked how Australia can bring credibility to COP31, Bowen gives the figures for its home battery rebate. He says he hopes Australia will overtake Germany soon.

Zero: The Climate Race · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →
Zero: The Climate Race Around 27:31 into the episode
Speaker 1

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Akshat Rathi

…comes to the total amount of batteries installed in the country. If you rank it, it's China, US, and then Australia, which is not a populous country compared to the other two. What is the recipe of success that you think you can take to COP31 to share with other countries that they can replicate?

Chris Bowen

…and it's from a standing start. So we introduced a new scheme 18 months ago. It came into force on the 1st of July 2025, which in effect, it's a little bit more complicated than this, but for the sake of this conversation, provides a 30% rebate to households that put in a battery. Now, as we speak, 589,000 houses have done it in the last 18 months. By the time this goes to air, it'll be 600,000. And we're putting in 2,000 every working day, every weekday. That's Australians getting on with it. And one small difference to what you said is what you said about Australia in battery rankings is correct on utility scale. So we're doing it big scales as well. So it's China, US and us on utility scale batteries. But on home batteries, it's slightly different. We actually have more home battery capacity than the US. despite our much…

Akshat Rathi

But what is the formula for success here? There's the policy support, there's subsidies to, you know, installing a battery at home or providing some feed-in tariff on solar. Lots of countries do that. What is it that Australia has done differently that allows you to unlock more?

Chris Bowen

I think it's a combination of things. It is the, so we have what we call the small-scale renewable energy scheme, which does provide rebates for both solar and batteries. It's lasted a lot longer for solar, came in in 2000 for solar, only in 2025 for batteries. That's important. And you can see…

Akshat Rathi

It is a challenge in communication where the hero narrative is something that, you know, people are easy to grasp where, oh, one man did something or one woman did something and thus something happened or one policy came out and as a result, bang, we have all this. But really, the implementation…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“No one has said to me anywhere in the world, 'you know what this energy crisis shows us? We need more fossil fuels.' They're saying the contrary, that renewable energy is sovereign energy… The sun has to travel 150 million kilometers to Earth. It doesn't have to travel the 150 kilometers through the Straits of Hormuz. No war can get in the way of the wind.” — Chris Bowen, Zero: The Climate Race

Asked whether wars and high energy prices make countries more willing to compromise at COP31, Bowen, Australia's climate and energy minister and president of the COP31 negotiations, says the energy crisis has strengthened the case for renewables as energy security.

Zero: The Climate Race · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →
Zero: The Climate Race Around 07:59 into the episode
Chris Bowen

…and the just transition mechanism, their key implementation, particularly the just transition mechanism, a key implementation task for this COP. But I do think there's good examples of where we have implemented, and there's some key examples where implementation has to be a focus this year.

Akshat Rathi

…energy prices high, which is the war in the Middle East. And the El Nino that is raising temperatures around the world and making already worse climate impacts even worse. With that background, do you see countries more willing to make compromises to come to a more ambitious outcome at this COP?

Chris Bowen

…you're right. I mean, obviously, I'm talking to a lot of my international colleagues and no one has said to me anywhere in the world, you know what this energy crisis shows us? We need more fossil fuels. I mean, no one is saying that. They're saying the contrary, that renewable energy is sovereign energy for many, many countries around the world. And to paraphrase the old saying, you know, the sun has to travel 150 million kilometers to Earth. It doesn't have to travel the 150 kilometers through the Straits of Hormuz. No war can get in the way of the wind. And for those countries that have renewable energy resources, it's sovereign. And even for those who don't, they need to diversify. Take Singapore, for example. They're not in a position to have massive onshore renewables. They don't have much room. But nor do they want to remain reliant on fossil fuel imports. So they're working with countries like Australia to diversify their energy needs…

Akshat Rathi

But this geopolitical situation also can work against you, because let's start with the US, which is now out of the Paris Agreement, is not going to be on the floor of negotiations, participating directly. It is set to even leave the United Nations climate body next year. But under President Trump…

Chris Bowen

well i guess all i'd say uh is they're not there like they weren't in this will be the second cop where the united states hasn't been present they weren't present in bilém they were present in uh baku um john podesta was on the way out he was still though very active um representing his nation but…

Akshat Rathi

you have in recent months uh met your counterparts both in china and india the other largest emitters in the world and you will need their support given they are parties and uh you know they bring a lot of weight to negotiations especially in the last moments when the final agreement is to come…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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Climate & Energy