Nearly 200 nations gather for the COP31 summit in Turkey on Monday but tensions over geopolitics, finance and fossil fuels are tempering expectations of a major breakthrough in tackling the climate crisis. More than 100,000 people are expected at the UN's two-week climate negotiations in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. Tougher action on fossil fuels– the main driver of climate change–appears unlikely and budget-strapped developed countries are reluctant to commit more money to help developing nations cope with climate impact.
Read moreEl Nino set to intensify before peaking in December, UN warns An energy crisis and cost-of-living pressures, fuelled by the war in the Middle East, are also looming over the gathering. "This is not going to be the COP that changes the world," said Paul Watkinson, France's former chief negotiator at climate summits. "It's an intermediate COP in many ways.
But it is an important conference and it does need to make sure it makes progress," he said. A senior EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also tempered expectations, adding: "We cannot expect a revolution in terms of climate action from the Antalya COP." The talks follow deadly floods in Nepal, searing heatwaves in Europe and major wildfires in Indonesia. Read moreMore than half of Europe faced intense summer heat stress, EU monitor says An exceptionally strong El Nino climate phenomenon is forecast to peak later this year, adding to extreme weather and possibly helping to make 2026 or 2027 the hottest year on record.
The outlook is increasingly bleak: the United Nations warned in September that global temperatures were on course to exceed 1.5C above preindustrial levels, breaching the most ambitious threshold set by the Paris Agreement. World set to breach 1.5°C warming limit set by Paris Climate Agreement To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading.
To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: Firefighters battle a forest fire near Blagon during wildfires in southwestern France, July 29, 2026 AP Photo/Emma Da Silva - Emma Da Silva Turkey is presiding over COP31, with Australia leading negotiations under an unusual arrangement that settled a dispute over who would host the conference. "COP31 comes at a difficult time for the world," said Australian climate minister Chris Bowen.
"Reaching consensus among nearly 200 countries will not be easy but cooperation remains essential." COP31 president Murat Kurum, Turkey's environment minister, said the conference would strive "to turn the commitments of past COPs into real results". Turkey is promoting an "action agenda" alongside the formal negotiations that encourages countries to support non-binding pledges on issues from artificial intelligence to waste management. Its centrepiece is an "electrification" drive to raise the share of global energy demand met by electricity from around 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035.
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