Turkey is hosting the UN climate summit, COP31, in Antalya from 9 to 20 November, but Australia presides over the negotiations under a compromise deal between the two countries, The Guardian reported.
Ministers and officials from more than 190 countries are expected in the Turkish city. The US, which has withdrawn from the Paris agreement, will be absent, according to The Guardian.
Australia’s climate minister, Chris Bowen, chairs those negotiations.
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The Split
Australia takes charge of the formal negotiations, covering a just transition, climate finance and the 1.5C goal, The Guardian reported. Turkey runs the “action agenda”, a set of voluntary, non-binding programmes that includes electrification.
The talks work by consensus. Turkey and Australia want an overarching “cover decision”, according to The Guardian.
The official agenda does not include countries developing detailed plans to transition away from fossil fuels, the paper reported.
Mr Bowen’s Three Aims
Speaking to The Guardian on Thursday 5 November, Mr Bowen named three areas: minimising overshoot past 1.5C, finance for poorer countries, and a new electrification goal. He dismissed doubts that a major fossil fuel producer can lead the talks.
The electrification goal, backed by Turkey and Australia, is for 35% of final energy use worldwide to come from electricity by 2035, The Guardian reported. Other goals include halving the growth of waste and cutting energy intensity in buildings, according to The Conversation.
Mr Bowen’s spokesperson told the ABC that Australia would try to “build consensus on electrification” at COP31.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was due to speak during a two-day leaders’ summit at the talks, The Guardian reported on 8 November.
The Coal and Gas Question
Australia is the world’s second-largest exporter of thermal coal and the largest exporter of steelmaking coal, and it supplies about a fifth of world LNG exports, The Guardian reported. The government expects the export value of the three fuels to be $141bn (US$98bn) in the 2026-27 financial year.
At home, Australia’s target is a 62 to 70 per cent cut on 2005 levels by 2035, ABC News reported from government data. Its domestic footprint is down 25 per cent on 2005.
Exports are counted separately. Emissions from Australian coal and gas burnt overseas reached almost 1,200 million tonnes in 2025-26, up from 681 million tonnes in 2005, according to the ABC.
Critics point to the approvals. The Climate Council has tracked 16 new coal mines or expansions and 11 new gas approvals since May 2022, ABC News reported. Climate Action Network Australia says 38 coal, oil and gas projects have been approved since 2022, according to The Guardian.
More than 500 mostly Australian scientists and academics have written to the prime minister asking for an end to coal and gas approvals, The Guardian reported.
Overseas emissions are already a legal question in Australia. In October, the High Court found that NSW planning authorities must consider emissions from fossil fuels burnt overseas when approving projects, ABC News reported. prw covered the Mount Pleasant ruling on 8 October.
Renewables supply almost half of the national energy market, and the government hopes for 82 per cent by 2030, according to the ABC.
What the Experts Expect
Bill Hare of Climate Analytics told The Guardian that fossil fuels are about 75% of global emissions, and that limiting overshoot needs a very rapid transition.
Mr Hare said: “Why should this process stop? That’s a hard political question for Australia to answer. I think [Bowen] needs to be brave at this Cop.”
Professor Frank Jotzo of the ANU expects caution. “The Australian government will want to play this very safe,” Professor Jotzo said, The Guardian reported. “I think the Australian presidency will have a strong focus on an orderly procedure with no surprises.”
Matt McDonald of the University of Queensland, writing an analysis for The Conversation, said Australia, with Turkey, has resisted calls to put a timeline for ending fossil fuels on the COP31 agenda. He noted that Australia joined 80 countries in signing the voluntary Belém agreement at COP30 to accelerate the phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
Australia also co-hosted a pre-COP in Fiji and Tuvalu in early October, which was criticised over the low turnout of world leaders, according to The Conversation.
Earlier coverage of Mr Bowen, including his comments on Russian fuel, is in prw’s Environment archive.
Consensus, From a Coal Exporter’s Chair
Mr Bowen says a major fossil fuel producer can lead the talks. His critics, including the scientists who wrote to the prime minister, want an end to new coal and gas approvals.
The summit is scheduled to finish on 20 November. Any cover decision will need consensus, and Australia, which chairs the talks, is one of the world’s biggest coal exporters.
Sources: The Guardian, “How do you broker UN climate talks when your own country is a big coal and gas exporter? Chris Bowen is about to find out”, 8 November 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/nov/08/chris-bowen-cop31-experts-condemn-australia-coal-gas-approvals); The Guardian, “Cop31: what is at stake at the UN climate summit and what can it achieve?”, 8 November 2026 (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/nov/08/cop31-what-is-at-stake-at-the-un-climate-summit-and-what-can-it-achieve); ABC News, “Australia’s export emissions under scrutiny ahead of climate talks”, 9 November 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-09/global-emissions-footprint-overshadows-australias-image/107329288); The Conversation, “Australia’s climate minister is about to walk a diplomatic tightrope at COP31”, 9 November 2026 (https://theconversation.com/australias-climate-minister-is-about-to-walk-a-diplomatic-tightrope-at-cop31-294565)
Photo: Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sea stacks and old walls on the rocky coast south of Antalya’s old town, the city hosting COP31, photographed in 2013. It is a view of the host city only, not of the summit.
