The 31st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) opened today, Monday, with an opening session in Türkiye’s Antalya. Türkiye is hosting the conference for the first time, and it will continue through November 20. The conference brings together the 196 parties to the convention and the European Union, while leaders from 102 countries and more than 300 ministers have so far confirmed their participation, according to Türkiye’s Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is attending the conference at the leaders’ level, alongside the United Nations, its Development Programme, the World Bank, the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Energy Agency. Türkiye is chairing and hosting the conference through Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum, while Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen is leading the official negotiations, in line with the arrangement agreed at last year’s COP30 conference in Belém, Brazil.
On the eve of the opening, Kurum held a trilateral meeting on Sunday with Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Australian Minister Bowen, in the presence of delegations from the three parties.
A first day focused on food, agriculture and health
The Turkish presidency dedicated the first day to the theme of “food, agriculture and health.” In the “Blue Zone,” where official negotiations take place under UN management, the Turkish Ministry of Health is organizing “Health Day” with four high-level sessions addressing climate-sensitive health technologies, climate action and digital health, integrating humanitarian assistance and health in crisis management, and dynamic and resilient health systems. A high-level roundtable will follow.
Turkish Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu said health was being included for the first time in the history of the Conferences of the Parties as a standalone area on the working agenda, citing the World Health Organization’s affirmation that the climate crisis is also a health crisis.
On food, the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are launching a joint report on the resilience of food systems under pressure. The conference is also hosting a high-level dialogue on women farmers, featuring an IFAD technical report titled “The Unfunded Half,” as well as another dialogue on the role of young people in agrifood systems.
In the “Green Zone,” which is open to the public, the day’s sessions address the use of climate data to serve water, agriculture and food security, and models for financing water infrastructure. They also include a session on the interconnections between water, food, energy and ecosystems within the framework of Türkiye’s national water plan.
Arab, African and Palestinian participation
Regional issues feature prominently in the first day’s programme. The United Nations Development Programme is holding a session titled “Making Climate Finance Actionable: The Sustainable Finance Landscape in Arab Countries,” while the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is dedicating a session to financing climate mobility in Africa. The African pavilion is hosting the opening session of the “Climate for Development in Africa” programme (ClimDev-Africa).
The Islamic Organisation for Food Security, affiliated with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, is also holding a session in the Turkish pavilion on the interconnections between water, energy, food and ecosystems to support crops that are more resilient to climate change in Africa. The Palestinian pavilion is screening documentaries, including one about the collapse of Gaza’s food and health systems and another about ecocide in Palestine. The largest hall in the Green Zone, with a capacity of 5,000 seats, is named “Gaza Hall.”
The clip, posted by Kurum on the eve of the opening with the caption “Only hours remain until COP31... We are ready,” shows aerial views of the Expo Tower and the conference site, as well as participants touring art exhibitions and the covered tropical garden.
Water scarcity on the agenda for West Asia and North Africa
On November 10, the Communications Directorate of the Turkish Presidency, in cooperation with the London-based think tank Forward Thinking, will hold a closed roundtable in the Blue Zone titled “Regional Dialogue on Shared Environmental Challenges: Climate Resilience and Sustainable Food Systems in West Asia and North Africa.” Government representatives, parliamentarians, diplomats and experts from the region will discuss the impact of water scarcity, drought, land degradation and waste management on agricultural production and food security.
On the same day, parliamentarians from Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf states will discuss the role of parliaments in turning international climate commitments into national legislation in the Turkish pavilion. On November 11, a session will address the integration of energy and agricultural policies into climate action and examine opportunities for cooperation between Europe and the West Asia and North Africa region in technology transfer and the exchange of expertise.
Before the conference, Kurum warned that declining water resources and the expanding reach of drought were threatening agricultural production and food security. He said his ministry was coordinating with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on water management.
Climate justice and demands from developing countries
Türkiye is presenting the conference as a platform for developing countries. During his visit to New York in late September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said COP31 would be a forum where the voices of developing countries would be heard. He called on developed countries to assume responsibility for supporting countries struggling to bear the cost of climate change. In his remarks at a climate event at UN headquarters, he stressed that it was unrealistic to expect all countries to progress at the same pace while gaps in access to finance and technology remained.
Finance is at the centre of the negotiations. At the Baku conference (COP29), countries agreed on a target of at least $300 billion annually for developing countries by 2035, while at the Belém conference (COP30) they agreed to at least triple adaptation finance by the same year. Climate Home News reported that the African Group requested the addition of further agenda items, including adaptation finance and trade.
On November 12, the COP31 presidency, together with Tanzania and the International Energy Agency, will hold a leaders’ roundtable on clean cooking in Africa. It will examine the role of women leaders and financing for local initiatives ahead of the second Africa Clean Cooking Summit, scheduled for January 2027.
In this Anadolu Agency video report, residents of Sıalak village in Antalya, which has become a “zero-waste village,” describe how their lives changed after they began sorting their waste and turning food scraps into compost. Kurum invited conference guests to visit the village, which is presented as a model for applying the “zero waste” approach.
Leaders’ summit on November 11 and 12
President Erdoğan will open the “Antalya Leaders’ Summit” on Wednesday, November 11. The two-day summit will take place in the Blue Zone. Its first day coincides with “Zero Waste Day,” when two initiatives will be launched at the leaders’ level: a high-level global dialogue on methane emissions from waste and a knowledge-sharing network on the circular economy.
The conference is being held across 1.1 million square metres at the Expo 2016 site. About 527,000 square metres are allocated to the Blue Zone, which is expected to receive nearly 100,000 visitors, while about 582,000 square metres are allocated to the Green Zone, which is expected to welcome 1.5 million visitors. Each day is dedicated to a different theme, from energy and transport on November 10 to oceans and nature on November 17, before the final negotiations on November 20.
Photos: Anadolu Agency, COP31 Türkiye. Video: Murat Kurum, Anadolu Agency
