Australia has dropped its bid to host COP31 climate talks

Sydney: At the last possible minute, Australia has backed away from its bid to host the United Nations COP31 climate summit next year in Adelaide alongside Pacific nations.

Under a compromise struck with rival bidder Turkiye, the 2026 talks will be held in the Turkish city of Antalya. In return, Australia will shape the agenda, and Federal Minister for Climate and Energy Chris Bowen will preside over the two weeks of formal negotiations. The Pacific will host a pre-COP event ahead of the summit.

Struck in the final days of the COP30 summit in Belém, Brazil, the compromise deal comes as a bitter disappointment to many – including me. It follows three years of concerted Australian diplomacy to host the world’s biggest climate talks. The deal does salvage some important wins for Australia and the Pacific.

At a press conference in Brazil, Bowen said, “Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all. But we can’t have it all. This process works on consensus.” He described Australia’s role as COP President as a “significant concession” offered by Turkiye.

Australia will have a central role to play over the next year in maintaining global momentum in shifting away from fossil fuels and accelerating the renewable rollout even faster.

Pacific island countries also have a chance to shape summit outcomes and attract vital investment as they push to reach 100 per cent renewables.

Bowen will be holding the gavel in Anatalya instead of Adelaide, but his workload will begin now. Australia will need to carry forward the agenda set in Brazil, where the COP30 presidency is working toward the first-ever global roadmap to phase out fossil fuels.

The Australia-Pacific bid was widely favoured to win. Minister Bowen has effectively been auditioning to head the talks by taking on key roles in recent years.

What happened? Partly United Nations procedure and partly domestic politics.

The annual summit is rotated between five different UN country groupings.

In 2026, Australia’s grouping – “Western Europe and Other” has its turn. By convention, countries choose a host country by consensus. Australia’s bid had overwhelming support within our UN grouping, as 26 of 28 countries in the group backed it publicly.

But Turkiye simply refused to give way.