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November 3, 2026
From November 9–20, 2026, representatives from around the world will gather in Antalya, Türkiye, to make decisions about our planet’s future at the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The conference will be attended by representatives from national, subnational, and indigenous governments, as well as non-governmental organizations, trade associations, and academic institutions. Though the exact negotiation agenda is still up in the air, those following COP31 can look to the stated priorities of the COP31 President-Designate to get a sense of what might be in store.
The COP president is responsible for the event’s facility, logistics, and the substantive content and direction of both formal negotiations and informal commitments. Typically, the COP host country’s leader appoints the COP president. Countries bid for the right to host COP, rotating between the continents. At COP29, Australia and Türkiye each put in bids to host the COP31 conference, but negotiations stalled until the end of COP30, when the countries agreed to host the next conference jointly. In this arrangement, the conference will be led by two presidents. This dual-host model is unprecedented—the only comparable case is COP23, which was hosted by Germany to simplify logistics, but presided over by Fiji.
Both COP31 presidents have clear responsibilities. The first president is Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, who will serve as the president of negotiations. Bowen will be the main point of contact for delegations struggling to reach agreements and individuals with concerns about rules, procedures, or the inclusion of marginalized perspectives. The second president is Turkish Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum, who will serve as the president-designate. In this role, Kurum is responsible for conference logistics and setting the COP31 Action Agenda.
The Action Agenda is the mechanism for all voluntary commitments from businesses, national and subnational governments, non-governmental organizations, and other actors outside of formal negotiations. The concept was originally introduced at COP20 in Lima, Peru, and runs alongside COP negotiations. The Action Agenda can also shed light on what the host country is most eager to see accomplished at COP, both within and outside the negotiations. The Action Agenda is strictly voluntary and non-binding, which differentiates its goals and action items from the obligatory agreements that come out of COP. Many Action Agenda items invite COP parties to collaborate with non-party actors and the United Nations on key goals. For example, the food security agenda item is introducing a voluntary program called the Turquoise Nexus, which aims to bring together countries and non-parties to collaborate under the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. An overview of several COP31 Action Agenda items and priorities follows.
One of Türkiye’s primary interests at COP31 is electrification. Electrification is the process of moving away from technologies that directly burn fossil fuels—such as gasoline cars, diesel generators, or gas stoves—and towards electric alternatives. Electrification is a necessary part of the clean energy transition, as it makes it possible to replace fossil fuels with electricity generated from renewable energy.
As a part of the electrification priority and its corresponding Action Agenda item, COP31 has affirmed a target of achieving 35% electrification by 2035 in its proposed Global Electrification Pledge. Kurum introduced this target at Climate Week NYC in September 2026. It is designed to be voluntary for both parties to the UNFCCC and non-party actors, and also informs other voluntary programs COP31 is introducing. Türkiye itself has a long way to go when it comes to electrification. Only 22% of the country’s energy consumption came from electricity in 2024.
Other aspects of the electrification agenda item include broadening electricity access and strengthening the grid. Around the world, 730 million people do not yet have access to electric power, according to the Turkish presidency. This agenda item also prioritizes replacing fossil fuel power plants with clean energy generation. This is essential when considering the growing energy demands of data centers. For the same reason, efforts to strengthen the grid are especially timely. The presidency highlights solutions, such as infrastructure investments and storage technologies, that can help make the grid more resilient. The Action Agenda also includes the COP31 Global Electrification Initiative, which seeks to assist countries in the implementation of electrification and grid improvements.
Another focus area of this agenda item is clean cooking. According to the Clean Cooking Alliance, a quarter of the world population cooks on open flames. This process releases harmful pollutants and smoke that cause environmental pollution and human health impacts. Furthermore, burning wood for fuel accounts for 2% of global carbon emissions. Providing cleaner cooking alternatives to people who use open flames, including electric stoves, is an essential aspect of electrification.
Complementary to the presidency’s electrification goals are its overarching clean transition goals. A global transition to clean energy has been a major goal of climate diplomacy for many years, with the annual meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) sessions, held during COP, serving as the main venue for formal negotiations. The president-designate has heavily emphasized this goal in the months leading up to COP31. Coal is Türkiye’s largest energy source, generating 33% of its electricity, and has actually seen its share of Turkish electricity production rise in recent years, replacing a decline in hydropower.
The clean energy transition priority’s corresponding Action Agenda item includes more than just phasing out fossil fuels. Another core focus is sustainable cooling. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), air conditioning accounts for 10% of global energy consumption. This statistic does not include most of the developing world, where only 8% of people own air conditioners. As the developing world grows richer, enabling more of its inhabitants to embrace air conditioning, cooling technologies are projected to account for 37% of electricity demand growth through 2050. The IEA estimates that energy-efficient cooling technologies can reduce future electricity demand by 45%. Passive and sustainable cooling strategies, such as shade, insulation, ventilation, climate-smart landscaping, and evaporation, can also effectively lower the temperature through non-mechanical means. These solutions are also flexible and scalable, and can be tailored to different countries’ climates, resources, and architecture. This ties in with another focus, nationally grounded transitions. This goal recognizes that every country has its own distinct context, and what works for one country may not work for the next—accordingly, the best solutions are those that can be modified to the needs of any country.
Another key focus within this item is geothermal energy, the subject of the Global Geothermal Ambition Pledge. With this proposed pledge, the presidency seeks to increase the total electricity and heat produced via geothermal energy twelvefold by 2050 (compared to 2025 levels). Countries and non-party actors that sign on to this pledge will attempt to boost geothermal generation through actions like funding geothermal research, providing technical assistance to countries in need, and using geothermal heat directly in heating and cooling systems.
Zero waste has long been a priority for the Turkish government, and now it features on the Action Agenda. In his third letter from the presidency, Kurum stated that under this priority, his goal would be to cut projected global annual municipal waste generation 50% by 2035.
This Action Agenda item aims to prevent food waste and promote circular economies. Food waste is one of the largest components of waste-related emissions, responsible for 219 metric tons of carbon dioxide and 2.59 million metric tons of methane emissions in the United States alone in 2024.
As a part of the related green industrialization priority, Kurum seeks to increase the global circular material use rate to 15% by 2035. Circular economy strategies allow items that might normally be thrown away to be repurposed, repaired, salvaged, and reused. Developing circularity pathways is especially useful for materials that are hard to source, such as critical minerals like lithium.
Waste is a key concern for Türkiye, which is a major importer of waste, particularly from the rest of Europe. In the waste trade, wealthier countries often export their waste to developing countries for processing. Those developing countries then deal with the consequences, including methane emissions, water pollution, and harm to wildlife. Countries like Mexico, Malaysia, and India also receive hundreds of millions of pounds of imported waste each year. Developing strategies to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste in its country of origin can improve both the environmental impacts of excess waste and the negative geopolitical impacts of exporting waste to developing countries. Key Turkish officials, including First Lady Emine Erdoğan, have been working on the challenge of zero waste, both domestically and internationally, for years. Erdoğan has campaigned to reduce waste since 2017, and founded the Zero Waste Foundation in 2023. She also serves on a UN Advisory Board on zero waste, having worked closely with Secretary-General António Guterres on the issue.
Two stated priorities of the COP31 Presidency reflect international interest in protecting and restoring natural ecosystems. The first of these covers oceans and seas, and notes that 25% of human carbon emissions are absorbed by ocean ecosystems, which act as a carbon sink, so protecting them is critical to continued climate action. Within that priority is a focus item on acidification—when excess carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater, creating an acidic byproduct—which also poses major ecosystem threats. Acidification can be limited by developing and protecting coastal blue carbon sinks, which is one of the focus items under the oceans and seas priority. Coastal blue carbon sinks are ecosystems that can sequester carbon in coastal plants like seagrasses and mangroves. Related to this priority is the commitment to building coastal ecosystem resilience. Coral reefs, for example, are highly sensitive to changes in water acidity and temperature, but critical to protecting coasts and marine life from storms and erosion.
These Action Agenda priority items also include deeper support for ocean research and coastal communities. The presidency notes that better ocean research can inform early-warning disaster communication and stronger climate policy. Better support can help coastal communities, which are vulnerable to flooding and erosion, take appropriate actions to limit the damage climate change may cause.
Türkiye is also developing a voluntary program to address marine litter. The Australian presidency has similarly emphasized the importance of oceans in COP discussions, appointing three Pacific climate envoys to highlight local climate solutions in Pacific island nations. Australia also hosted a pre-COP summit in Fiji and a world leaders event in Tuvalu.
The other presidential priority dedicated to protecting the natural environment is the Rio Synergy, a plan to implement “integrated solutions where climate, biodiversity, and desertification converge.” Focus areas here include protecting carbon sinks and biodiversity and improving wildfire management. These three goals build on priorities established at COP30 in Brazil.
Türkiye’s Murat Kurum has also emphasized the importance of city-level resilience and adaptation. In May, negotiators, including Kurum, adopted the Hatay Declaration, which committed signatories to building resilient cities, establishing financing mechanisms to fund urban sustainability, and implementing nature-based solutions. In its priority related to climate-resilient cities, the presidency highlights that 37% of all carbon dioxide emissions are from buildings and construction. Buildings are responsible for considerable emissions related to heating and cooling. Only 17% of worldwide building power demands are met with renewable energy. COP31 priority items for climate-resilient cities include achieving whole-life emission reductions by using more sustainable materials and making buildings more efficient. The promotion of green building certifications is one tool for reducing these emissions. The Action Agenda also highlights the need for finance mechanisms to improve cities’ disaster resilience infrastructure.
As it seeks to make cities climate resilient, the Action Agenda encourages buy-in to multiple programs, including the Antalya Compact for Energy Efficient Buildings, which would reduce the energy intensity of buildings globally by 25% by 2035. The presidency also launched the Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility, in partnership with the Turkish development bank, İlbank. This program would help countries create and implement sustainable finance mechanisms and provide technical assistance for urban planning.
The programs discussed above represent only part of a broader suite of initiatives that the Turkish presidency is using to advance climate action at COP31. Dialogue at COP31 may also include other topics explicit in the presidential priorities and in continued discussions from previous COPs, as well as topics like climate finance that are central to the UNFCCC’s work. As COP31 unfolds, EESI will cover key updates on Action Agenda items and negotiation issues. To keep up with everything COP31, sign up for our COP Dispatch newsletter and keep an eye on our COP31 Resources page.
By Parthav Easwar
Advancing science-based solutions for a sustainable, resilient, and equitable world
Top-Rated Climate Nonprofit – 4-Star Charity