TÜRKIYE / Turkey has clinched hosting rights for COP31 in 2026, edging Australia after a long-running contest that began in 2022. It’s a geopolitical win for Ankara — coming off the back of hosting the NATO Summit in 2024— and a reminder that climate diplomacy now sits squarely inside the global soft-power game.
Returning from COP30 in Brazil, Clean Energy Investor Group (CEIG) Australia CEO, Richie Merzian, told ABC RN that the result “is not what the Australian government wanted.” Australia-Pacific was positioning for its first-ever COP with a projected cost of A$2 billion and substantial economic returns . But Merzian’s bigger point lands harder: 70% of renewable investment in Australia comes from overseas. The energy transition here isn’t happening without foreign capital.
What Australia Still Gets
Australia’s Climate Minister Chris Bowen is still in line to influence COP31 as a potential COP President. Expect him to set the tone early — likely through a pre-COP Pacific roundtable — showcasing Australia’s progress in utility-scale renewables, home electrification and the emerging green-exports portfolio, including green steel.
Bowen conceded the loss would disappoint some, but the fallback — defaulting COP31 to Bonn — would have sidelined the Pacific entirely.
Image credit: Merzian CEIG. Australia Climate Minister Chris Bowen at COP30 Brazil
The Pacific Stakes Are Real
Australia’s COP bid was never just about hosting prestige. It was about giving Pacific climate priorities a global stage: adaptation, resilience finance, and accelerating Loss & Damage support.
Pacific nations were instrumental in creating the Loss and Damage Fund at COP27 and pushing it to operational status at COP28. By April 2025, pledges reached about US$768 million — but only US$321 million has actually been paid. The mismatch underscores the ongoing reality: the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations are still navigating a slow and complex funding pipeline.
South Australia: The Secretariat That Never Was
South Australia — the heart of the Australian bid — has gone from 1% to 74% renewable electricity in just over 16 years and is targeting 100% net renewable generation by 2027. It remains one of the fastest energy transitions on the planet.
Türkiye’s Diplomatic Moment
COP31 cements Türkiye as a rising climate-diplomacy player. Hosting NATO one year and the world’s largest climate summit the next is a soft-power pivot that moves Ankara from security to climate leadership in one strategic leap.
COP31 in Turkey is scheduled for November 2026, in Antalya.
Backgrounder: United Nations Climate Change COP
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