COP31 in Antalya: Can the Climate Talks Move From Promises to Real Action?
The 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is being held in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026.
Türkiye holds the COP31 presidency and hosts the summit. Australia leads the formal negotiations as "President of Negotiations", under a power-sharing deal agreed at COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
The meeting comes after a year of severe climate impacts, such as deadly floods in Nepal and record heat, droughts and wildfires in many regions. The focus has shifted from making new promises to delivering on old ones (called implementation).
Three big tests are before negotiators: whether countries' new climate plans (NDCs) are strong enough to cut emissions, how to deliver the COP30 call to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035, and how to take forward the 59 indicators adopted at COP30 to measure progress on adaptation (coping with climate impacts).
Developing countries want clear numbers, a starting point (baseline) and a timeline for the money promised to them. Rich countries point to tight budgets and want more private money and a wider donor base.
UNFCCC and the Conference of the Parties (COP)
The UNFCCC is the main world treaty on climate change, agreed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Almost every country has joined it. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the yearly meeting of all these countries, called "Parties". It is the treaty's highest decision-making body, and it decides everything by consensus, which means no country formally objects.
Because every COP decision needs consensus, even one group of countries can block or weaken a text. This is why "delivering results" at COP31 is hard, and why the split presidency of Türkiye and Australia is being watched closely.
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) Under the Paris Agreement
A Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, is a country's own climate action plan under the Paris Agreement (2015). In it, each country says how much it will cut or limit its greenhouse gas emissions and how it will adapt to climate change. "Nationally determined" means each country sets its own target; no one imposes it. Every five years, countries must submit a new NDC that is stronger than the last one. This is called the ratchet.
"Cutting emissions" at COP31 mainly means checking whether the new NDCs, when added up, keep the world close to the Paris temperature goal. Most studies say they still fall short, so pressure to raise ambition is one of the key fights in Antalya.
Adaptation Finance Under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement
Adaptation finance is money spent to help people, farms, cities and nature cope with climate impacts that are already happening or can no longer be avoided. It pays for things like heat-tolerant seeds, better irrigation, early warning systems, stronger embankments and heat action plans. Under the climate treaties, rich countries are expected to help poorer countries pay for this, because poorer countries did little to cause the problem but suffer the most.
Helping vulnerable countries like Nepal cope with floods and heat depends on adaptation finance. At COP31, developing countries are pushing to turn the tripling call into a plan with a baseline, a timeline and clear donors, while rich countries resist new binding commitments.
- COP31: Antalya, Türkiye, 9 to 20 November 2026; also CMP21 and CMA8
- COP31 President: Murat Kurum (Türkiye); President of Negotiations: Chris Bowen (Australia)
- UNFCCC: adopted 1992 (Rio Earth Summit), in force 21 March 1994; Secretariat in Bonn, Germany
- COP decisions are taken by consensus; draft Rule 42 on voting was never agreed
- Climate finance goal (NCQG, COP29 Baku, 2024): developed countries to lead in mobilising at least USD 300 billion a year by 2035; wider goal of USD 1.3 trillion a year by 2035 from all sources
- COP30 (Belém, 2025): call to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035; 59 indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation
- India's NDC 3.0 (April 2026): 47% emissions-intensity cut by 2035 (from 2005 levels); about 60% non-fossil installed capacity by 2035