Energy and climate change minister Chris Bowen has used his opening speech at the mid-year climate talks to highlight the "fragility of fossil fuel supply chains".
"In a world of geopolitical uncertainty and energy disruption, the transition is not a risk," he declared in Bonn, Germany, the long-time home of the intersessional United Nations climate summit.
"It is the solution and an immense opportunity."
The 2026 Conference of the Parties conference is set to take place in the southern Turkish province of Antalya but with Australia running negotiations and Pacific island nations hosting pre-COP events, the outcome of a diplomatic compromise struck between the rival bidders.
Since then, conflict in the Middle East - which is threatening to escalate - has triggered the biggest oil shock in history and put the spotlight on energy security.
Mr Bowen and his Turkish counterpart, COP31 president Murat Kurum, have been framing transport electrification and renewables as the answer to energy supply chain shocks and geopolitical fracturing.
But groups like Greenpeace Australia Pacific also want leadership on a key perceived shortcoming from 2025's COP30 event in Brazil - the lack of progress on a global road map away from fossil fuels.
"While Australia's speech was strongly focused on the limitations of fossil fuels and supply chains amid the current energy shock, what's still lacking is the vision and agenda for COP31 that will truly deliver the transition away from fossil fuels," the environmental group's head of Pacific Shiva Gounden said.
"Every successful COP has depended on a strong presidency and Bonn is a key moment for the incoming presidency to start shaping the vision."
Outside the formal UN climate diplomacy process, a group of countries - including several Pacific states - have been pushing hard for progress on the fossil fuel transition, with Brazil using its ongoing COP30 presidency role to continue negotiations.
More than 50 countries, Australia included, participated in the first conference on the fossil fuel phase-out co-hosted by Colombia and The Netherlands in April.
Australia has also signed up to the Belem Declaration, a voluntary commitment to a "just, orderly, and equitable" roadmap away from fossil fuels brokered on the sidelines of the COP30 talks when a formal consensus could not be reached.
In Mr Bowen's opening address, the importance of implementation, adaptation, finance, the just transition, and ocean-based climate action were also flagged.
Countries have also been called on to submit updated Nationally Determined Contributions for 2035 ahead of COP31 after deadlines for the emission-reduction plans were missed by many states ahead of the 2025 talks.
