In less than three weeks, governments will gather on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast for the year’s most important climate negotiations. COP31, the 31st UN Climate Change Conference, runs from November 9 to 20 in Antalya, with a summit of world leaders on November 11 and 12.
An unusual double act
COP31 has an arrangement never tried before. Türkiye is the host and holds the presidency, with Environment Minister Murat Kurum as COP31 President. Australia, which gave up its own bid to host, will lead the negotiations, with Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen holding the title “President of Negotiations.” The deal was struck to resolve a long standoff over which country would host the 2026 talks.
What came out of the Pacific pre-COP
Ministers met in Fiji in early October for the pre-COP, the last major preparatory meeting, with a leaders’ event in Tuvalu. About 4,000 people from more than 100 countries attended. Key points included:
- Finance access: more than $16 billion in climate finance has been committed to Pacific countries since the Paris Agreement, but over $5 billion has not been paid out. Australia launched an action plan to speed up and simplify access to funds.
- Rooftop solar: Australia became the first country to sign a Global Rooftop Solar Pledge, which aims for 300 million rooftop solar panels worldwide by 2030.
- Oceans: Türkiye committed to work towards an “Antalya Ocean Declaration.”
- A Pacific declaration adopted by leaders in Tuvalu, which other countries are invited to join before Antalya.
The big issues for Antalya
- National climate plans: many countries’ updated targets (NDCs) still fall well short of what is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C. Fiji’s Lynda Tabuya said new plans must close that gap.
- Money: turning finance pledges into cash that reaches vulnerable communities.
- Adaptation and resilience: helping countries cope with heat, floods and sea-level rise that are already happening.
- Energy: the pace of the shift to clean power, which this year’s energy price shock has made both more urgent and more politically difficult.
Why it matters
The talks follow a year of record heat: August 2026 tied as the hottest month ever measured, and Western Europe had its hottest summer on record. For low-lying and climate-vulnerable countries, from the Pacific islands to Bangladesh, the outcome on adaptation money and loss and damage will matter as much as any headline emissions target. As Kurum put it at the pre-COP, the 1.5-degree goal is “a matter of survival.”