The 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) and the World Leaders Summit will be physically hosted by Türkiye in the city of Antalya from 9 to 20 November 2026. The Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, will serve as the President of Negotiations.

What is the COP?

The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments that the COP adopts and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements. More information about UNFCCC at unacov.uk/unfccc/. More information about COP: unacov.uk/cop30/

Topics for COP31

Electrification

There was much talk of electrification within the annual Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SB64 UNFCCC) during June 2026. Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister who will co-host the Cop31 summit, told the Guardian: “Without electrification, we won’t be able to reach any of the targets [of the Paris agreement], so we must go through this transformation. Whether you call it the missing piece of the puzzle or the most important tool that we have in our toolkit, this is the case.”

Very little other agreement

“We have seen side-stepping and stalling,” UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, said after the two weeks of SB64. “We’ve seen geopolitical tensions wash through these halls. We simply cannot afford to reopen previous decisions, to renegotiate existing targets, or to backslide. It’s cooperation, not fierce competition, that we need.”

More report of SB64 discussions at theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/20/electrification-takes-centre-stage-bonn-climate-talks.