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🌍 COP31 opens in Antalya on Monday 9 November. It is the first climate summit in the UN’s history to run under a split presidency: Türkiye is hosting, while Australia is steering the formal negotiations. It is also the first COP to open with an overshoot of the 1.5°C limit widely accepted as unavoidable.
📌 This is our dedicated COP31 hub, with live updates, analysis and key insights before, during and after the summit.
🔗 Scroll down for our latest articles and updates.
Explained: Why this COP has two hosts
Most COPs have one host government and one president. COP31 is different, and the reason is a standoff. Both Türkiye and Australia wanted to host, and neither would withdraw. At COP30 in Belém last year they settled it with an arrangement that had never been tried before.
Türkiye hosts the summit in Antalya. Its environment minister, Murat Kurum, serves as COP31 President, and Türkiye leads the Action Agenda, the non-negotiated side of the COP where businesses, cities and other groups announce initiatives.
Australia gets the negotiations. Climate and energy minister Chris Bowen is President of Negotiations (and a COP Vice President), with authority to run the talks, prepare draft texts and issue the overarching “cover decision”. The Pacific got a role too: the pre-COP was held in Fiji and Tuvalu.
Splitting the roles has happened before, in a looser form. COP23 was presided over by Fiji but held in Bonn, and COP25 was presided over by Chile but held in Madrid. This is the first time the presidency’s powers have been divided.
Where it could get awkward. The official agreement says that any difference between the two countries should be resolved through consultation. But in September, Kurum said Türkiye and Australia are not co-presidents, and that the final decision lies with the COP31 presidency. Both sides say they are working well together, and the real test will come if the negotiations get difficult, particularly over the fossil fuel transition.
COP31 at a glance
The summit
- Dates: 9–20 November 2026
- Venue: Antalya, Türkiye (Antalya EXPO Center)
- Leaders’ segment: 11–12 November
- COP31 President: Murat Kurum (Türkiye)
- President of Negotiations: Chris Bowen (Australia)
- Next year: COP32 in 2027 is due to be hosted by Ethiopia
Climate
- This is the first COP held with an overshoot of 1.5°C widely seen as unavoidable. The UN’s most optimistic scenario has warming peaking at around 1.7–1.8°C by mid-century, then falling back.
- At COP30, countries agreed to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035. A new UN Adaptation Gap Report finds that even a tripling would reach $85–120 billion a year, against estimated needs of $305 billion.
- Brazil’s voluntary fossil fuel roadmap, published on 3 November, is 182 pages long. It asks countries to draw up national transition plans by 2028.
Energy
- Türkiye’s flagship electrification pledge aims to raise electricity’s share of global final energy use to 35% by 2035. It is due to be launched on Energy Day, 10 November.
- Electricity currently accounts for roughly 23–24% of final energy consumption. Climate Action Tracker estimates that current policies would reach only about 28% by 2035.
- Critics point out that the pledge doesn’t require the electricity to be clean.
Featured articles
Key updates
08th of November 2026
13:30 GMT / 10:30 BRT (Brasília Time)
Delegates are arriving in Antalya ahead of tomorrow’s opening plenary, and the first fight may come before the talks even start. African countries have asked for extra agenda items, including adaptation finance and trade, and Nepal wants a new work programme on mountains and climate change. Australia is trying to settle the agenda without a row, but it’s unclear how.
Beyond the agenda, the big questions are whether the fossil fuel roadmap makes it into the final outcome, whether rich countries offer any new climate finance, and whether the electrification pledge becomes the summit’s headline success.