‘We can’t have it all’: Chris Bowen will run COP31 negotiations but Turkey will host
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The news: Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has ceded Australia’s bid to host next year’s COP31 climate change conference to rival Turkey but will be have the power to oversee negotiations and draft the final agreement.
The context: Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of COP30 in Brazil, Bowen said that as president of negotiations he would have “all the powers of COP presidency to manage, to handle the negotiations, to appoint co facilitators, to prepare draft text, and to issue the cover decision”.
Turkey would retain the COP presidency but would only be responsible for hosting and handling operations for the conference. It will be hosted in the city of Antalya in November 2026.
However, Bowen flagged that “there’s a little way to go in these discussions”, with the potential to host a pre-COP event at a Pacific island nation which would be “a pledging event for the Pacific Resilience Fund”.
The Western European and Others Group under the COP framework is still undertaking discussions "over the next 24 hours", with the support crucial to finalising hosting arrangements.
During the 54th Pacific Islands Forum in September, the federal government committed $100 million to the fund that aims to help provide grant funding to help local communities cope with the impacts of climate change.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said earlier in the week Australia would not seek to veto the selection of Turkey although Australia was still in the bid at the time.
What they said: “Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all. But we can't have it all,” Bowen said.
“This process works on consensus. And consensus means if someone objected to our bid, he would go to Bonn. That would mean 12 months, with a lack of leadership, no COP President in place, no plan.
“That would be irresponsible for multilateralism and this challenging environment. And we didn't want that to happen. So hence, it was important to strike an agreement with Turkey, our competitor.”
The source: Minister Bowen transcript
