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Three days before COP31, Türkiye cuts burned forest area by 68%
Three days before the United Nations COP31 climate conference opens in Antalya, Türkiye announced that the area of forests affected by fires had fallen by about 68% this year, while the conference presidency highlighted the silent crisis beneath the Mediterranean. World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo praised Türkiye’s “excellent work” at both the organizational and strategic levels.
Türkiye is entering the final three days before the opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP31, hosted by the Mediterranean city of Antalya from November 9 to 20, with issues directly affecting countries in the basin: rising sea temperatures, forest fires, and water and food security. The leaders’ summit will be held on November 11 and 12.
As part of the countdown, the conference presidency released a teaser from the documentary “Blue Sense,” which reveals the “silent crisis” unfolding beneath the Mediterranean, days after the Mediterranean episode of the “Heat Is Coming” series was screened.
The one-minute clip moves between the Mediterranean’s shores and depths: a diver among rocks, schools of fish, seagrass meadows, and testimony from people living along its shores. The film warns that invasive species and rising water temperatures threaten the fragile balance of the sea. The presidency wrote: “You cannot truly know a sea by looking only at its surface; its real story lies in its depths,” stressing that “we cannot tackle the climate crisis without protecting our oceans.” The full film is available on the COP31 YouTube channel.
Fires decline as Türkiye sends aircraft to Spain and France
On land, Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumaklı said firefighting teams had responded to 6,219 fires this year, including 2,111 in forests and 4,108 in rural areas, compared with 7,509 fires in 2025. This represented a 35% decline in the number of forest fires. He added that 24,527 hectares of forest had been affected, down by about 68% from the previous year, and that 96% of forest fires had been brought under control before spreading beyond 10 hectares.
Yumaklı said 86% of the fires were caused by human activity, while the share of affected forests in Türkiye’s total forest area stood at just 0.1%, compared with 1.09% in Spain, 1.06% in Portugal and Italy, 0.56% in France, and 0.54% in Greece. He noted that Türkiye had sent aircraft and helicopters to Spain and France this summer after the two countries experienced severe fires, and that its fleet now includes 28 aircraft and 119 helicopters, as well as 14 Bayraktar TB2 drones for early fire detection.
On November 11, which Türkiye celebrates as National Afforestation Day, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will plant saplings in the “Peace Forest,” established to commemorate the summit. During the conference, the ministry will launch the “Turquoise Nexus Initiative,” which addresses water, energy, food and ecosystems as a single system, and will lead a high-level dialogue on integrated fire management.
Saulo: Türkiye is doing excellent work
World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo told Anadolu Agency that she welcomed Türkiye’s hosting of the conference and that its active role in climate diplomacy was “entirely clear.” She expressed confidence that the conference, led by its president, Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum, would be well positioned to change the current course and take concrete steps.
In the interview, Saulo said the organization was fully aligned with the “action agenda” prepared by the Turkish presidency of the conference, which places science and evidence at the center of decision-making. She noted that the current El Niño phenomenon had exceeded previous global impacts, and that early-warning systems save lives, but progress in this area “is not moving as quickly as we would like.” She said: “Türkiye is doing excellent work at COP31 at both the organizational and strategic levels,” urging countries to “move faster and implement immediately.”
Presidency builds bridges and attracts investment
Laurence Tubiana, president of the European Climate Foundation and one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, said Türkiye could play an important role as conference president in building bridges between the parties. Odile Renaud-Basso, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said the bank’s investments in Türkiye had reached 2.5 billion euros since the beginning of the year and were expected to exceed 2.7 billion euros by year-end, a record figure.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that by 2040 Türkiye would reach 175,000 megawatts of combined installed wind and solar capacity through investments approaching $100 billion, and that it would present at COP31 a target of raising electricity’s share of energy consumption to 35% by 2035. He added that Eti Maden would begin the first gold production in Niger within days, together with MTAIC, the international mining company affiliated with the General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration. The “Türkiye Industrial Decarbonization Investment Platform” (TIDIP) will also be launched during the conference, seeking investments of 5 billion euros and annual reductions of 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.
From observer to host
As the date approaches, conference president Murat Kurum posted a short video from the summit site on Friday, accompanying it with the phrase “Son 3,” meaning “the last three.”
The 13-second clip shows the Turkish flag fluttering against an orange sunset sky as the “Expo Tower,” a landmark at the conference site, displays the words “SON 3 GÜN” (“3 days left”) beneath the COP31 tulip-shaped logo. The hosting follows a long path: Türkiye took part in climate negotiations as an observer until 2004, signed the Paris Agreement in 2016 and became a party to it in 2021. At its initiative, March 30 was declared International Zero Waste Day in 2022.
Young people will also have a role at the summit, as the T3 Foundation, the T3 Entrepreneurship Center and the Zero Waste Foundation are organizing a climate technology innovation competition, or creaton, under the slogan “Technology for climate, solutions for the future!” Applications closed on November 2, and the final stage will be held on November 17 and 18. The winning teams will receive an overseas trip and direct participation in the T3 Center’s pre-incubation program and “Take Off Istanbul,” as well as an opportunity to speak at the “Zero Waste Forum.” Somalı, president of the Electric Mobility Operators Association, said the conference was a strategic opportunity to present Türkiye’s domestic technologies in this field to the world.
The conference’s official account also posted a clip titled “Only three days left to be part of the change!”
The 16-second clip begins with an image of a hurricane seen from space, storm clouds and a fog-shrouded forest before moving to the Expo Tower and summit site under the slogan “Let’s change our planet.” It ends with the words “3 days left” and the conference logo. The accompanying post said: “The consequences of climate change remind us of one truth: we have no other planet, but we have the power to change it.”
Video: Turkish COP31 presidency and Murat Kurum via X, Anadolu Agency. Photo: Anadolu Agency. Cover image: Konyaaltı coast in Antalya, Esginmurat / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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