BELEM, Brazil (AP) 鈥� Turkey will host next year鈥檚 annual U.N. climate talks but Australia will preside over the discussions under a compromise in which Australia withdrew from the running to be the venue, the Australian climate minister said.
The 2026 talks will be held in the Turkish resort city of Antalya, Australia鈥檚 Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said after his country withdrew its bid late Wednesday to be the venue, this year hosted by Brazil. But in a compromise worked out with Turkey, Bowen is set to act as the conference president overseeing the agenda, he said.
鈥淥bviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all,鈥� Bowen said. 鈥淏ut we can鈥檛 have it all.鈥�
The venue for the talks, formally known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP, is rotated annually through five regions in which countries submit nominations. Next year’s region is the Western European and Others Group, which includes both Turkey and Australia 鈥� the two countries that had been vying to be host.
David Ritter, who leads Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the arrangement to split the venue and presiding officer between two countries was 鈥渉ighly unusual,鈥� and that he hoped it wouldn’t diminish the conference mission.
鈥淲hatever the forum, whoever the president, the urgency and focus cannot change, and phasing out fossil fuels and ending deforestation must be at the core of the COP31 agenda,鈥� Ritter said.
A representative of small Pacific island nations said his group had hoped that Australia would be the host country to give his region more of a voice.
Steven Victor, the minister of agriculture, fisheries and environment of Palau, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the coalition of in the Pacific 鈥� which are among the 鈥� are still trying to understand how this new arrangement will be implemented.
鈥淚t is not something we wanted to see happen, but at least we still have some level of voice in it,鈥� Victor said. 鈥淲e need to figure out how to amplify that voice and influence the process.鈥�
脺mit Sahin, head of Climate Policy Program at the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanc谋 University, said 鈥渢he climate talks at Antalya will be unique in many ways. It鈥檒l be a Mediterranean COP, a Middle Eastern COP, a COP with a Pacific dimension all at once.鈥�
Sahin said that Turkey has sometimes been a bridge between developed and developing countries. He added Turkey will need to carefully navigate its close ties with major oil producers Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan as it begins preparations for hosting the talks.
鈥淭hese relationships warrant careful scrutiny, as they could shape the impartiality, ambition, and integrity of conference outcomes,鈥� Sahin said.
Ethiopia was announced as host for COP32 earlier this week. Other nations, , have already bid to host the talks the year after that.
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Associated Press reporter Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru, India, contributed to this report.
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This story was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews鈥� Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
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