COP31 opens in Antalya next month with two presidencies and an unfinished fight over fossil fuels

The next United Nations climate conference, COP31, is scheduled to run from November 9 to 20 in Antalya, on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, at the city’s Expo Center. Formally, the meeting combines three bodies: the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN climate convention, the 21st meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol and the eighth meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement. Heads of state and government are expected for a World Leaders’ Summit on November 11 and 12.

The summit arrives with an arrangement that has no close precedent in UN climate diplomacy, and with an agenda that is, in large part, the unfinished business of last year’s meeting in Belém, Brazil.

One summit, two presidencies

Türkiye and Australia both wanted to host COP31. The standoff was resolved at COP30 in November 2025 with a compromise: Türkiye hosts the conference in Antalya and holds the presidency, while Australia’s climate minister, Chris Bowen, serves as president of negotiations. Türkiye’s Murat Kurum is the president-designate.

How authority is divided in practice has been described differently by different parties. Bowen has said he expects to have the powers of the presidency to manage the negotiations, prepare draft text and issue any cover decision. Türkiye, as host, appoints a venue president responsible for logistics, scheduling and operations. Some coverage describes Australia’s role over the negotiations as exclusive; other accounts stress that Türkiye is the official host and president. Observers have asked how the split will work when a difficult call has to be made late on the final night, which is when most COP outcomes are decided.

The deal also gave the Pacific a role. Australia had spent years consulting Pacific island nations on its bid, and the arrangement included holding the annual pre-COP meeting in the Pacific and a session on climate finance for small island developing states, intended to build support for the Pacific Resilience Facility.

What Belém left on the table

COP30 concluded on November 22, 2025, with a package that analysts generally described as progress on finance and implementation, and a disappointment on fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels. The main decision did not explicitly call for phasing out fossil fuels. It referred back to the “UAE Consensus” from COP28 in Dubai, which called for “transitioning away from fossil fuels” in energy systems. Pushback from major oil-producing states kept stronger language out of the text, despite calls from more than 80 countries for a roadmap. Outside the formal process, more than 80 countries signed the Belém Declaration, committing to work toward a “just, orderly and equitable” transition away from fossil fuels, and Colombia and the Netherlands agreed to co-host a conference on the subject in April 2026.

Adaptation finance. Developing countries had pressed for a tripling of finance for adaptation by 2030. The final text called for efforts to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035. Some summaries reported the target differently, but the 2035 wording is the one most analyses cite.

Climate finance overall. Countries reaffirmed the pathway agreed at COP29 in Baku: mobilizing at least $300 billion a year for developing nations by 2035, within a broader goal of $1.3 trillion a year from public and private sources.

Implementation. Belém launched a Global Implementation Accelerator and a “Belém Mission to 1.5” meant to push countries toward their existing commitments, set up a framework for cooperation on a just transition, and confirmed arrangements for the loss and damage fund. For the first time, a COP decision acknowledged the need to tackle climate disinformation.

What to watch in Antalya

The fossil fuel file. This is the largest unresolved item carried over from COP30. Whether the April conference co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands has produced momentum that can be brought into the formal talks will shape the tone in Antalya. Any text that goes beyond the UAE Consensus would need the agreement of countries that blocked it in Belém.

Money for adaptation. A target year of 2035 is a long way off for countries already paying for floods, heat and drought. Expect pressure for interim milestones and for clarity on what counts toward the goal.

The host’s agenda. Türkiye has set out an action agenda with ten priority themes, including zero waste, oceans and seas, food security, climate-resilient cities and powering climate action. Host-country agendas tend to produce voluntary initiatives and pledges rather than negotiated text, but they shape what gets attention in the first week.

Whether the two-presidency model holds. COP outcomes depend heavily on presidency judgment: when to table a text, when to push and when to gavel. If the arrangement works smoothly, it may be studied as a template for resolving future hosting disputes. If it does not, it will be the story of the summit.

National climate plans. Under the Paris Agreement, countries were due to submit updated national climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions, in 2025. How far those plans fall short of the Paris temperature goals, and what the Belém Mission to 1.5 can do about it, is likely to be a recurring theme of the speeches in the leaders’ segment.

Why it matters for business

COP decisions do not themselves bind companies, but they set direction for national policies that do. Finance commitments shape where development banks and climate funds put money. Language on fossil fuels influences how governments write energy plans and how lenders assess long-term risk. Companies with operations or supply chains in climate-exposed regions have reason to follow the adaptation debate in particular, because adaptation spending determines whether ports, roads and power networks in those places are built to withstand the weather that is coming.

The formal schedule and any changes are published on the official COP31 site. Agreements, if any are reached, typically arrive after the scheduled close.