UN Climate Conference COP31 Opens in Antalya on 9 November
The 31st United Nations climate conference, known as COP31, opens in Antalya, Türkiye, on Monday, 9 November, and runs until Friday, 20 November 2026, according to the official COP31 website.
COP stands for "Conference of the Parties," the yearly meeting of the countries that have joined the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty under which governments discuss how to respond to global warming. Türkiye is hosting the conference for the first time, and it will preside over the meetings, which means it chairs the proceedings. Australia will lead the negotiations among governments. A formal arrangement reached in November 2025 set out Türkiye as host with Australia advancing Pacific interests, Reuters reported.
The talks will take place in the Antalya COP31 Area, according to an accreditation announcement from Türkiye's communications directorate. Representatives of 197 countries are expected to gather there to discuss climate commitments, policies and solutions. Turkish Minister Murat Kurum has carried out site inspections at the venue, the Turkish climate ministry said.
Two days of the conference are set aside for a leaders' gathering. The Antalya Leaders' Summit will take place on 11 and 12 November, and it is open to all Parties and observer states, meaning countries that take part without being full members of the negotiations. Organisations and other groups can also apply to run events alongside the talks, and applications are open through the official website, the ministry has said.
The conference comes as the World Meteorological Organization, the UN's weather and climate agency, has been tracking how close the planet is to a key warming threshold. In May 2026, the WMO said there is a 75% chance that the average global temperature over the five years from 2026 to 2030 will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 average, the baseline used to measure warming since pre-industrial times.
