The Premier Peter Malinauskas will travel to Baku in Azerbaijan this week to attend COP29 conference, where he will hold a series of high-level meetings, promote Adelaide's bid to host the international event and inspect the operations of the conference.
One of the world's largest annual events, the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change gathers representatives from 197 nations to discuss and make decisions on climate change.
The State Government has been working diligently preparing and advocating for Adelaide to be the host city for the event to be held in November 2026, should the Commonwealth Government's bid to host COP is successful.
Hosting major events is an area of strength for South Australia, built up over many decades of consistently delivering high quality world-class events.
Hosting COP31 would be one of the most significant diplomatic events in Australian history, and certainly the largest, bringing in an unprecedented number of leaders from governments, business, and the global community to Adelaide.
If would be the largest event ever held in South Australia, with more than 30,000 people attending the conference, delivering an estimated economic benefit of more than $500 million.
Since 2022, a significant amount of work has been conducted to prepare the bid including an in-depth detailed analysis which found that South Australia, and especially Adelaide, has the capacity, the resources, the facilities, and the amenity to successfully deliver COP31.
The Premier's travel to COP will be a brief but important visit to have intensive discussions with relevant officials about South Australia's bid, and to highlight how South Australia is able to meet the infrastructure, security, and logistical requirements to successfully deliver COP31.
It will provide an opportunity to highlight how South Australia has a proud and demonstrable record of leading Australia's efforts to respond to the critical challenges posed by climate changes.
As put by Premier Malinauskas
South Australia is already a world leader in renewable energy and decarbonisation and hosting COP31 would firmly put our state on the global map.
This conference will attract tens of thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars into our state, it will provide an incredible opportunity to market our state to investors across the world, enhanced global visibility and deliver long lasting benefits for our tourism and events industry.
We are a state which recognises the challenge of climate change, but we haven't waited for others to lead, we have chosen to take world-leading action.
South Australia is primed and ready to host COP31 in November 2026, as Australia's renewable energy powerhouse, as a safe and secure city, and as a state that has an enviable record of hosting major events.
We are the perfect choice to be the host city for this momentous conference.
