Turkey beats Australia in race to host climate talks in 2026

Turkey is set to host the flagship United Nations climate change conference in 2026, beating Australia following a protracted contest between the two countries.

A deal was reached so that the COP31 talks in November 2026 will be staged in the resort city Antalya, said Mr Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s state secretary for climate.

He said there was no opposition to the agreement within a group of countries that needs to back the decision. A formal sign-off is still needed.

“It’s something extraordinary that two countries, from very different sides of the planet but being in one group, reached an agreement,” Mr Flasbarth told reporters after the meeting. “I saw a lot of support and no general opposition.”

Turkey will also hold the presidency of the summit while Australia will lead the negotiations under an agreement forged late on Nov 19, Mr Flasbarth said, confirming earlier reporting by Bloomberg.

The world leaders summit that typically happens at the start of each COP will also take place in Turkey, he added.

There will be a pre-COP event in the Pacific region.

Of the split responsibilities under the deal, Mr Flasbarth said that “some question it because this is innovative”.

The result is a blow not just to Australia, but also to those who had counted on an “island COP” to deliver more aggressive plans for shifting away from fossil fuels and scaling up finance for countries on the front lines of climate change.

With Turkey playing host, the COP will continue a stretch taking place mostly in the Middle East, following sessions in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. 

And while

the 2025

climate conference

on the edge of the Brazilian rainforest has been welcoming to environmental and Indigenous activism, critics have raised concerns that such activity may be curtailed under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian leadership.

Mr Erdogan’s government has touted Turkey’s credentials to act as a bridge between developed and emerging economies.

That speaks to the tensions between rich and developing nations over funding for climate action that have dominated negotiations in recent years.

Turkey, which is targeting net-zero emissions by 2053, is preparing a new set of national climate targets.

Australia had sought to host the next COP summit as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attempts to reverse its reputation as a climate laggard. Legislation on the country’s first binding emissions reduction target was passed shortly after he came to power.

A new goal announced in September seeks cuts of up to 70 per cent to its 2005 level of emissions by 2035. 

“What we’ve been trying to do is get a solution which works for Australia, the Pacific, and also the multilateral process,” Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen said on Nov 19. Mr Bowen had been a particularly vociferous proponent of the country’s bid.

Both Mr Albanese and Mr Erdogan missed talks held by dozens of world leaders in Brazil on Nov 6 to 7 ahead of the 2025 COP30 summit.

The absence of several major politicians from those discussions – and concerns over the rate of progress in achieving targets laid out at previous COP meetings – prompted fresh questions over the usefulness of the conferences.

The COP summit is rotated among five blocs.

Australia and Turkey are both members of the Western European and Other States, or WEOG, grouping under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The UN had previously asked the bloc to settle on a single candidate by June 2025.

Mr Albanese and Mr Erdogan had traded letters on the issue without reaching a compromise. Australia proposed Adelaide in South Australia as the host city.

The African States bloc will host the 2027 meeting and Ethiopia has already put itself forward as a prospective host. BLOOMBERG