Türkiye will host COP31 after Australia withdrew its bid

Türkiye has been confirmed as the host of next year’s UN climate summit, COP31, after Australia officially withdrew its bid to hold the event in Adelaide.

An agreement between the two countries will see Australia host a pre-COP summit in the Pacific and appoint Federal Climate Minister Chris Bowen as the event’s President.

Co-hosting the event is not an option under UN rules.

Bowen said that while “it would be great if Australia could have it all... we can’t”.

What is COP?

COP’s attendees are the 198 countries that have signed the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It is the UN’s largest annual event, and is a “global forum for…discussion of climate change matters” between countries.

COP was first held in 1995 in Berlin, with around 4,000 attendees. Last year’s edition hosted 50,000.

Notable decisions include the adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP21 in France in 2015.

The agreement binds countries to limit their emissions to ensure global temperatures don’t rise more than 1.5°C above levels recorded during 1850-1900, after which fossil fuel emissions rapidly increased.

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This year’s summit, COP30, will wrap up on Friday after two weeks of talks in Belém, Brazil.

Australia

A host country for the event is voted on by consensus. Bowen said continuing Australia’s bid would have been “irresponsible,” because Türkiye had refused to give up its bid to host.

“That would mean 12 months, with a lack of leadership, no COP President in place, no plan,” Bowen said.

Australia rejected a plan to co-host the summit with Türkiye last month.

Bowen is set to be appointed President of COP Negotiations, meaning he will be responsible for managing discussions and issuing the final decisions at COP31.

Reactions

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas told media he was “disappointed” by the decision, and that the Prime Minister had had to navigate a “frankly obscene process”.

“It is clear that the rest of the world largely would have preferred COP to be in Adelaide,” he said.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley welcomed the move, adding that “spending $2 billion of taxpayers’ money on this exercise just goes to show how their priorities are all wrong.”