The Cop31 UN climate summit opens next week in Antalya, Turkey, under a presidency shared with Australia. The two hosts want the talks to shift away from fossil fuels and towards clean electricity, The Guardian reported. A target on the table aims to meet 35% of final energy demand from electricity by 2035.
The Guardian says the hosts' records will face close scrutiny. Australia is a coal exporter. Turkey is a coal consumer, and coal remains its biggest source of power despite a push for renewables. Turkey's national climate plan allows its greenhouse gas emissions to rise rather than fall.
The split presidency stems from a last-minute compromise struck at Cop30 in Belém last year. Australia and Turkey both wanted to host, and both bid from the same regional group as western Europe. The UN climate treaty has no way to settle a deadlock between two bidders. Nor does it provide for a majority vote. According to The Guardian, the two countries seem to have worked well together since then.
Australia will chair the formal negotiations. Its brief covers the "just transition" for fossil fuel workers, the loss and damage fund, climate finance and emissions cuts. Turkey will run the "action agenda", a programme of voluntary pledges. Electrifying the global economy is the central plank, alongside initiatives on waste and methane.
Chris Bowen, Australia's Cop31 president of negotiations, told The Guardian in June that his country could start to shift from fossil fuel exports towards clean electricity. He refused to set any end date for coal. This week, 50 frontline organisations from Turkey, Australia and other coal regions wrote to the Cop presidents. They demanded an end to coal mining and use.
Mehmet Dalkanat of the Afşin-Elbistan Platform for the Protection of Life and Nature said local people had lived with coal for 40 years. He said they had paid a heavy price in pollution. He pointed to the cancellation in July of plans to expand Turkey's largest coal-fired power plant. "The Cop31 presidencies must build on this local victory to accelerate the phaseout of coal and deliver a just transition," he said.
The Guardian described the geopolitical outlook as worse than for almost any recent climate summit. It cited conflicts in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza and economic uncertainty driven by the White House. The paper also noted the latest UN reports. They say keeping warming below 1.8C will require massive, urgent emissions cuts, while global carbon emissions have yet to peak. The summit will be the last for UN Secretary-General António Guterres.