Turkey set to host COP31 climate summit as deal with Australia takes shape

AL-Monitor
Nov 19, 2025
FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev attend the opening of the Belem Climate Summit plenary session, as part of the COP30 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Belem, Brazil, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev attend the opening of the Belem Climate Summit plenary session, as part of the COP30 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Belem, Brazil, November 6, 2025. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo — Adriano Machado

BELEM, Brazil/CANBERRA (Reuters) -Turkey would host next year’s UN climate summit while Australia would lead the conference’s negotiations among governments, under a compromise deal that three sources familiar with the matter said was taking shape in talks on Thursday.

Australia and Turkey both submitted bids in 2022 to host the annual COP, or Conference of the Parties, the world's main forum for driving climate action.

The two nations have been in a protracted struggle to host, with neither willing to back down.

The compromise would give Turkey presidency of the summit and see a pre-COP event held in the Pacific, the sources said, adding that negotiations taking place at COP30 in Brazil had not yet officially concluded.

News of the compromise was first reported by Bloomberg.

A spokesperson for Australia's COP30 delegation declined to comment. Neither the Australian nor the Turkish governments immediately responded to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett in Belem; Additional reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan, Peter Hobson and Renju Jose; Editing by Alistair Bell and Sonali Paul)