Barnaby Joyce says Anthony Albanese and Labor are out of touch on climate change
Energy Minister Chris Bowen hosting meetings in Canberra during an energy crisis shows Labor is disconnected from average Aussies, Barnaby Joyce has told Daily Mail Australia. In his first external meeting since being sworn in, Mr Bowen hosted ex-fire chiefs who have been demanding stronger climate action and were snubbed by before the 2019 . During his first press conference on Thursday morning, he appeared on stage with leading members of Emergency Leaders For Climate Action and declared the new government will take 'real action on climate change'. The minister made reporters wait until the fire chiefs had left before addressing the global energy crisis which could see Australian energy prices double from July, according to comparison site Finder. At the same time Mr Bowen appeared on stage with the climate activists, Foreign Minster Penny Wong was in Samoa talking up Australia's ambition on climate change. Former deputy prime minister Mr Joyce, who is calling for more coal-fired power to tackle soaring power bills, said Mr Bowen's press conference showed Labor is out of touch with battling Aussies. 'I'm sure after this meeting I'm going to watch the wholesale price of power go down,' he said sarcastically. 'Usually it takes a month or so before the Labor party gets disconnected but this is a remarkable effort, they're doing it in the first days.' Mr Joyce said Australia taking action on climate change will only push up power prices further and will not help reduce global emissions while China, India and other countries burn record amounts of coal. Australia is responsible for 0.5 per cent of global emissions while China makes up 28 per cent. 'This (climate action) is something that will make people in teal street happy and assuaged,' Mr Joyce said in reference to the inner-city suburbs which voted for independent 'teal' candidates on May 21. 'They'll feel a greater sense of virtue while someone in the western suburbs is going to feel poorer and people in regional villages are going to feel poorer.' Sources close to Mr Bowen said Mr Joyce's accusations were unfair because the majority of the press conference was focussed on the energy crisis. Sanctions on major oil and gas exporter Russia over its as well as soaring demand after lockdowns have seen global energy prices skyrocket. Germany has drawn up a bill this week ordering coal power plants that were due to shut down to be maintained on standby in case they are needed at short notice. Mr Bowen said he would not rule in or out any measures to tackle rising power prices, including increasing coal power generation. He said the Coalition is not to blame for the crisis but insisted Australia would be able to handle it better if there had been more investment in renewable energy. 'The former government's nine years of denial and delay, their 23 energy policies... have left Australia ill-prepared and our energy markets ill-prepared for the challenges we face today in relation to gas and energy supply,' he said. 'The previous government didn't do the work necessary to increase renewables or storage. 'If we had more storage and renewables and better transmission, we would be much better placed to deal with the current challenges. 'That is exactly what our powering Australia plan seeks to implement but it will take some time to implement. 'As I have said, you don't overturn nine years of dysfunction, denial and delay overnight. But action is necessary.' The new Labor government wants 82 per cent of the nation's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 and believes this will bring down power prices because hydro, solar and wind energy is cheaper. Currently about 60 per cent of Australia's electricity comes from coal, 32 per cent from renewables and eight per cent from gas. Mr Bowen said Labor would not budge on its target to reduce emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. But Greg Mullins, former fire and rescue commissioner for NSW, said they should increase, adding: 'I am confident that those targets will be ramped up over the next few years.' The Emergency Leaders For Climate Action want a target of 75 per cent. Mr Mullins warned if drastic climate action was not taken then Australia will face more climate disasters such as floods and fires. He said the 2019 summer which saw drought and fires would become an 'average' summer by 2040 and a 'cool' summer by 2060. 'We must take action now,' he said. Even though it was only introduced in October, Mr Joyce claimed Australia's net zero carbon emissions by 2050 target was contributing to rising power prices. 'Every time you pay your power bill, you're paying for the 2050 target. Every time you pay for your petrol price you're paying for the 2050 target,' he said. Mr Joyce said he simply didn't believe Labor's projections that increasing renewables will decrease power bills. He said every time a coal fired power station has shut down then prices have gone up. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Bowen's office for comment. In interviews on Thursday morning, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said there was no quick fix to the energy crisis and would not 'I don't want to pre-empt any of those kinds of discussions,' he said. 'It has its own challenges and it is not immediate. There is a series of processes that we would need to go through. 'We need to be upfront and recognise that there is not one thing that we can do to fix this overnight.' European nations including Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic plan to burn more coal as a temporary measure while they reduce reliance on Russian gas, while the UK is drilling for more gas in the North Sea. The EU's green deal commissioner Frans Timmermans believes Europe can still meet emissions reductions goals while temporarily burning more coal as long as nations switch Russian gas for renewables at the same time. Of the EU's 27 member countries, 17 have increased their plans to increase renewable energy since 2020, think tanks Ember and the Centre for Research and Clean Air said. If achieved, the countries' latest plans would see 63 per cent of EU electricity produced from renewables by 2030, up from 55 per cent under their 2019 policies, the researchers said. Germany and the Netherlands both hiked their renewable energy goals this year, while countries including Austria, Greece and Ireland have raised theirs since 2020. Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and others set coal exit dates, and France offered renewable home heating subsidies.