Australia Rejects Turkey's Offer To Hold COP31 Climate Summit After Opposition Against Net Zero Emissions

JAKARTA - Australia on Monday 17 November rejected Turkey's offer to host the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (KTT) (COP31) in 2026.

Australian Prime Minister (PM) Anthony Albanese firmly opposes the proposal to co-host with Turkey.

"It's not an option, and people realize that it's not an option, that's why the proposal has been put aside," he said, quoted by AFP, Monday, November 17.

Australia and Turkey are under pressure to break the deadlock and avoid the situation at Brazil's COP30 summit introducing the Belem Declaration followed by 35 countries to accelerate the transition to a green economy, Friday, November 14.

The organizers of the UN Climate Summit were originally chosen by consensus, if Turkey and Australia refuse to co-host then this has never happened before. Thus, resulting in the right to host COP31 falling into Germany's hands.

Previously, Australia made an offer to host its own COP31 2026 Climate Summit in Adelaide City with its neighboring countries in the Pacific Islands, in the hope of highlighting the part of the world that is being hit by the impact of climate change.

However, the task of hosting will also trigger strict scrutiny of Australia's green track record. As the world's second-largest coal exporter, Australia has long taken advantage of exporting fossil fuels and treated climate action as a political and economic burden.

The stalemate related to the 2026 COP31 Climate Summit has made Brazil as the organizer of COP30 appoint a representative to help resolve disputes between Australia and Turkey.

On the one hand, in early November 2025, the Liberal Party and the main opposition National Party in Australia had firmly rejected PM Albanese's plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

The Liberal Party has confirmed that the promise will be realized if they are in power in Australia.

The centre-right political party has been involved in lengthy discussions in recent weeks over realizing Liberal Party Chair Scott Morrison's plans for climate pledges while serving as Prime Minister of Asutralia in 2021.