COP31 to open in Antalya with Turkiye hosting and Australia leading the negotiations

16 October 2026

Less than a month before the UN climate conference COP31 opens in Antalya, Turkiye, representatives of three successive summit presidencies met at UN Headquarters on how to restore trust in climate action. General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman opened the high-level meeting, citing the devastation in Nepal, and said this year's strengthening El Nino could be among the strongest since at least 1950 while the world is on its way to warming by 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels under current policies, far beyond the Paris Agreement's goals. Turkiye will host the conference from 9 to 20 November, and among its key initiatives is the Climate Implementation Bridge, developed with the UN Development Programme, to turn national climate commitments into investment-ready projects. Turkiye's Ambassador to the UN, Ahmet Yildiz, said the issue is not simply the volume of finance but whether finance is available, accessible, affordable and predictable. Australia is leading the COP31 negotiations under an arrangement in which two countries share responsibility for the summit; Australian Ambassador James Larsen called for more accessible climate financing. Brazil, which hosted COP30, set out three priorities for Antalya: making the new just transition mechanism operational, improving how countries measure progress on adaptation, and expanding climate investment in developing countries struggling with debt. Ethiopia, which will host COP32, noted that Africa contributes only around three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. World leaders are expected to gather for a special summit in Antalya on 11 and 12 November.