Turkiye to host COP31 climate summit after Australia concedes bid

Turkiye will host next year’s COP31 summit in the city of Antalya, ending a long standoff with Australia over the location of the top United Nations climate meeting.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Thursday morning that Australia had reached an arrangement with Turkiye to host negotiations in the lead-up to the 2026 UN climate meeting along with Pacific nations while Turkiye will assume the presidency of the official meeting.

“What we’ve come up with is a big win for both Australia and [Turkiye],” Albanese told the Australian public broadcaster ABC Radio Perth.

The announcement comes as this year’s COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belem is due to close on Friday.

Australia had been pushing to host COP31 next year as a “Pacific COP” alongside low-lying South Pacific nations, which are increasingly threatened by rising seas and climate-fuelled disasters.

Despite Australia’s efforts, Turkiye refused to back down in its bid to host the summit.

Turkiye had said that as an emerging economy, it would promote solidarity between rich and poor countries at its summit, which would have a more global rather than regional focus.

Turkiye will now have just 12 months to plan the meeting at the Antalya Expo Center due to the unusually long process to secure hosting duties and the lack of procedures in place to handle a situation in which two countries wanted to host at the same time.

The presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change traditionally rotates among five regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and Western Europe and others.

Australia and Turkiye both fit within the latter category of Western Europe and others, meaning that Australia will now have to wait another five years until it can bid to host the meeting again.

Ethiopian Minister for Planning and Development Fitsum Assefa Adela announced last week that her country had already secured the support of African negotiators to host COP32 in 2027.

‘Disappointed it’s ended up like this’

Papua New Guinea (PNG) quickly voiced frustration with Australia for dropping its bid to cohost the COP with its Pacific island neighbours.

“We are all not happy and disappointed it’s ended up like this,” PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told the AFP news agency.

“What has COP achieved over the years? Nothing,” Tkatchenko said. “It’s just a talk fest and doesn’t hold the big polluters accountable.”

Australian Senator Steph Hodgins-May from the Australian Greens party said Australia’s withdrawal from hosting the meeting reflected the current Labor government’s “continued coal and gas approvals” as Australia continues to increase its exports of fossil fuels.

“This is extremely disappointing, but it shows that the world recognises Australia’s significant role in making dangerous climate change worse,” May said.

According to the International Energy Agency, both Australia and Turkiye are heavily dependent on coal, oil and gas for energy, but both countries have also been making progress in renewable energy.

Australia’s federal Labor government had hoped to showcase renewable energy progress in the state of South Australia by hosting the conference in the state’s capital, Adelaide.

However, the proposal was complicated by the city’s struggle to cope with a significant toxic algal bloom that has been taking place offshore for eight months.

Algal blooms are one of many complications caused by warming oceans, an aspect of climate change that climate scientists and other experts said can be improved only by rapidly reducing dependence on fossil fuels.