Turkey Will Host COP31 After Australia Withdraws Bid in Unexpected UN Climate Agreement
Australia dropped its proposal and agreed to a unique split-presidency arrangement, meaning that COP31 would now take place in Turkey.
Following an unexpected agreement that resulted in Australia withdrawing its application to host the global climate summit, Turkey is now anticipated to host the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31). The accord, agreed during continuing negotiations at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, has resolved months of gridlock within the UN regional grouping responsible for picking the host country.
Under UN norms, responsibility for holding COP31 belongs to the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG), which includes Australia and Turkey. But until an agreement was reached, neither party was prepared to give in. Australia’s climate minister, Chris Bowen, will lead the COP, and Turkey will host the gathering in the Mediterranean city of Antalya. This is a unique arrangement in UN climate diplomacy.
This shared leadership concept is very unique because the COP president is typically chosen from the host country. Although Bowen maintains that the approach would work well, others believe the framework raises concerns about how tasks will be divided in reality.
“I would have all the authority necessary to steer negotiations as COP president, from selecting co-facilitators to formulating the cover decision,” Bowen declared in Belém. He affirmed that Turkey would designate a venue president in charge of operations, scheduling, and logistics.
A pre-COP meeting will be held on a Pacific island state prior to the main summit in Turkey, which is another symbolic concession made to Pacific Island nations in the accord.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the conclusion as “an outstanding result,” underlining that Pacific climate initiatives will remain “front and centre.” He mentioned conversations with Prime Ministers Sitiveni Rabuka of Fiji and James Marape of Papua New Guinea.
Important Pacific leaders, however, voiced displeasure.
“We are all not happy,” Justin Tkatchenko, the foreign minister of Papua New Guinea, told AFP. And I’m upset with how it turned out.
Jeremiah Manele, the leader of Solomon Islands, had previously expressed his disappointment if Australia was unable to obtain hosting rights.
Australia has fought aggressively to bring COP31 to Adelaide as a co-hosted summit with Pacific Island governments, saying that climate-vulnerable states needed a central role.
The UN climate system was becoming increasingly embarrassed by the lack of agreement, and there were concerns that if an agreement could not be reached, the meeting would automatically return to Bonn, Germany, where the UN climate headquarters is located.
Given the global climate emergency, Bowen called such scenario “irresponsible” because it would have left the globe without a COP president or agenda for a whole year.
Turkey maintained it had a strong claim to host COP31 after stepping aside in 2021, allowing the UK to hold COP26 in Glasgow. With the recent compromise, Turkish officials are anticipated to move fast into planning mode once accepted by the 190-plus countries attending COP30.
The entire UN climate assembly must formally approve the agreement, but diplomats say that considering how difficult it was to negotiate a settlement, objections are improbable.
The unexpected Australia-Turkey partnership is a major break from decades of COP hosting tradition as COP30 continues in Brazil. The success of COP31 next year will determine whether it becomes a new model or stays an anomaly.
For the time being, the development breaks a protracted impasse and paves the way for a historic dual-led international climate meeting.
