Today the United Nations’ annual climate talkfest, known as COP31, kicks off in Antalya, Turkey.

For the next two weeks, Chris Bowen will chair talks between nearly 200 countries.

It’s the moment he’s been chasing for years: the top job, the global spotlight and the praise of the UN climate crowd.

Anyone watching can see it: Bowen cares more about applause on the world stage than the struggle of Australians at home.

He fought hard for a big UN title – “President of Negotiations” – so he could soak up the praise, while making you pay for it.

And it didn’t come cheap.

Labor has budgeted more than $150 million of taxpayers’ money for Bowen’s COP presidency gig.

His department set aside up to $4.2 million for rooms at Fiji beach resorts, including the Sheraton Fiji Golf and Beach Resort, just for the warm-up meeting.

That’s your money, spent on his moment in the sun.

And the fake global sales pitch started before he even landed.

Last week, Bloomberg ran a video telling the world “How Australia Gives Its Citizens Free Electricity”.

Free electricity.

Tell that to the family opening this quarter’s power bill.

The “free” power is Labor’s Solar Sharer plan: three hours in the middle of the day, 11am to 2pm in most places, when most working Australians aren’t home to use it.

You need a smart meter and it’s only on offer in New South Wales, south-east Queensland and South Australia.

And according to Canstar, if you don’t use power in that window, you’re paying significantly higher rates than you would on a competitive plan.

It makes a great headline overseas, but it does very little for the bill on your fridge.

Back home, Australians are going backwards on every measure.

Power bills are up 12.8 per cent in a year.

Inflation is back up to 4.3 per cent.

Interest rates rose again last Tuesday, to 4.85 per cent.

Unemployment is rising and the economy is slowing.

And Chris Bowen is in Turkey, working out which new climate targets he can sign you up to pay for.

While he’s at it, families are wondering how they’ll pay for Christmas.

Pensioners are too scared of the bill to turn on the air con.

Small business owners are working harder and harder just to keep the lights on.

The people running the energy system aren’t feeling the pinch.

The Herald Sun reports federal energy bosses have been handed massive taxpayer-funded pay rises despite soaring electricity costs.

At the Australian Energy Market Operator, executives collected $7.2 million in salaries and short-term benefits last financial year, according to the ABC.

That’s more than double the $3.3 million they took home in 2020-21. AEMO itself admits its costs end up in your power bill.

Families pay more. The energy bosses get paid more.

Bowen should be home fixing it.

Instead, he’s chasing more targets.

His big push in Antalya is a new global goal to lift electricity to 35 per cent of the world’s energy use by 2035.

It’s voluntary. No country is bound by it. It won’t change the weather.

But you can bet Labor will use it to justify more Net Zero spending, more transmission lines and higher bills here at home.

That’s how every Net Zero promise works.

The applause goes to Chris Bowen. The bill goes to you.

When he was asked about the cost of his COP role, Bowen didn’t apologise. “These things do cost money,” he said on ABC Radio.

The Liberals, the Nationals, and One Nation have all committed to scrapping Net Zero. Labor is the last major party still holding on, and Bowen is about to spend two weeks promising the world even more of it.

He needs to hear from the people paying for it.

Already, more than 94,000 Australians have signed the petition telling Labor to dump Net Zero. Help get it to 100,000 while Bowen is in Turkey, so the loudest message he hears comes from home.

Their summit. Your bill.

Sign the petition now: DUMP NET ZERO.