‘We can’t have it all’: Turkey to host UN climate summit as Australia budges

Turkey will host next year’s UN climate summit while Australia will lead the conference’s negotiations among governments under a compromise deal taking shape in talks in Brazil, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday.

The annual Cop conferences are the world’s main forum for driving climate action. The compromise would resolve a stand-off between Australia and Turkey over who would stage Cop31. Both bid in 2022 to host it and refused to stand down.

The two sides were now close to a deal that would see Turkey hosting Cop31 as summit president, with a pre-Cop event staged in the Pacific and Australia as president of negotiations, Albanese said.

“What we’ve come up with is a big win for both Australia and Turkey,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio.

The two nations now have just a year to prepare for an event that attracts tens of thousands of people and requires months of diplomatic legwork to reach consensus around climate goals.

“There’s a little way to go in these discussions,” Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told reporters at Cop30 in Belem, Brazil, adding that the compromise would achieve Australia’s aims.