Turkey opens COP31 in Antalya as an 'Implementation COP' while critics point to the host's coal record

Turkey opened the United Nations climate summit COP31 in Antalya on Monday, November 9, asking nearly 200 countries to make it an "Implementation COP" focused on delivering promises already made rather than writing new ones. Environment Minister Murat Kurum, who holds the conference presidency, pitched Turkey as a bridge between rich and developing countries and promoted a pledge to raise electricity's share of global energy use to 35% by 2035. The host's own record is now under scrutiny: coal still supplies about a third of Turkey's electricity, and the country has set no date to phase it out.

That gap between the host's message and its energy mix is the central argument around this summit. Turkey's government says its renewables boom and electrification push show a practical path that energy importers can follow. Climate researchers and campaigners say Turkey's own 2035 target would let emissions plateau or rise, and that a presidency asking others to implement should first commit to ending coal. The talks run through November 20, and about 70 heads of state and government are expected, according to Frankfurter Rundschau.

What Turkey and Australia said at the opening#

Turkey is hosting under an unusual split arrangement. Kurum is COP31 president, while Australia's climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, serves as president of negotiations, Türkiye Today reported.

Kurum framed climate policy as economic policy. "Climate policy today is also development policy. It is food policy. Energy policy. Urban policy," he said. He said the presidency would rest on dialog, consensus and action, according to the full text of his remarks published by Milliyet. "We do not want to leave a list of decisions from Antalya," he said, in a 567politics translation. "We want to leave a working culture."

He made three concrete offers:

Kurum also said Turkey, "together with Australia," is ready to amplify the voice of Pacific island states and other vulnerable countries.

Bowen was blunter about the science. "The latest science tells us that we will overshoot 1.5. But we can still return if we work together and act with urgency, solidarity and resolve," he said, referring to the Paris Agreement's warming limit. He said projected warming has fallen from nearly 4 degrees Celsius before Paris to about 2.6 degrees, but warned that "the countries that need climate finance the most are getting it the least." The agenda includes more than 160 items and 60 negotiating mandates, Türkiye Today reported. Bowen said he and Kurum agreed to pursue a short, presidency-initiated decision on speeding up practical solutions. "It will not be a lengthy political declaration," Bowen said.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell urged delegates to shift from targets to delivery. "COP31 must supercharge solutions," he said, pointing to tripling renewable capacity by 2030 and cutting methane. "No COP is a silver bullet," he added.

Delegates adopted the agenda on the first day, avoiding the kind of procedural fight that delayed earlier summits, the Guardian reported. Under the split arrangement, Australia runs the formal negotiations, while Turkey runs the voluntary "action agenda" on waste, methane, food security and electrification, the Guardian said.

Early disputes: finance and the United States#

Money surfaced as a dividing line within hours. Developing countries won a place on the agenda for the Climate Finance Work Programme, a two-year effort launched at last year's summit in Belém, Brazil. The European Union's representative said the bloc had "serious concerns that the agreed outcomes and delicate compromises of the Mutirao decision are increasingly called into question," according to Carbon Brief as quoted by the Guardian. Proposals from the African group for separate agenda items on tripling adaptation finance and on trade were refused.

Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, said the Belém pledge to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035 "is not going away." He added: "We will hold developed countries to that commitment in every room where finance is discussed. For African countries, adaptation is not optional. It is survival."

The United States sent no official delegation for the second year in a row. "This summit rejects reality by failing to acknowledge that extremist climate policies are destroying countries around the world," a White House official said, according to the Guardian. About 20 members of Congress are attending without the usual State Department support, the paper reported. "We have a lot of rebuilding to do," said Representative Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat.$

The science backdrop also shifted on opening day. The World Meteorological Organization said average surface temperature from January to September 2026 was about 1.47 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average, and that 2026 is on track to be one of the four warmest years on record. "We have entered a new age of climate extremes," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.

The host's energy record#

Turkey's power sector has changed fast, but in two directions at once.

• Coal
• Wind and solar

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

About 2015Coal: 29%Wind and solar: 4.5%

2025Coal: 34%Wind and solar: 22%

About 20152025

Source: Climate Action Tracker, citing Ember, DW

Show the numbers

Period	Coal	Wind and solar
About 2015	29%	4.5%
2025	34%	22%

Coal provided 34% of Turkey's electricity in 2025, up from 29% a decade earlier, according to Climate Action Tracker, a research group that rates national climate plans. Over a similar period wind and solar grew from 4.5% to 22% of electricity, DW reported. Turkey has approved more than 33 gigawatts of battery storage projects since 2022, DW said, and solar went from about 0.1% of installed capacity in 2014 to almost 21% at the start of 2026, according to the energy ministry figures DW cited.

Both trends are real. Coal-fired generation rose by roughly a third over the decade, DW reported, and in June Turkey announced plans to nearly double the capacity of one of its largest coal plants. At the same time, the campaign group Beyond Fossil Fuels says about 97% of proposed new coal projects in Turkey were canceled in the past decade.

Energy security is part of the government's case. Turkey imports 95% of its natural gas, 83% of its crude oil and 60% of its coal, Efe Baysal of the campaign group 350.org told DW. Kurum has argued that the recent war in the Gulf "has shown us, once again, that fossil fuels do not guarantee energy supply security." Turkey's annual inflation rose to 29.77% in October, which Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek partly attributed to war-driven energy costs, as 567politics reported in its coverage of the October inflation data. The government is also pursuing nuclear power, including financing talks with South Korea for a planned plant at Sinop.

The critics' case: targets that allow growth#

Climate Action Tracker rates Turkey's climate plans as not compatible with the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees. Turkey's 2035 target, submitted in November 2025, caps emissions at 643 million tons of CO2 equivalent including forests and land use. Excluding that sector, CAT calculates the target at 694 million tons, or 31% above 2018 levels. "The 2035 target would see Türkiye's emissions plateau or even increase over the next decade," the group wrote.

CAT's main methodological objection is the baseline. Turkey expresses its target as a cut from a business-as-usual scenario of 1,109 million tons in 2035, while actual emissions in 2023 were 483 million tons including land use. CAT says the government has not explained how it built that baseline, which "makes the 2035 target seem ambitious." Turkey has said further detail will come in its next transparency report, due by the end of 2026. CAT also says that under Turkey's national energy plan, electrification would reach only about 25% of energy use by 2035, short of the 35% the presidency is promoting globally.

Fifty frontline groups from coal regions in Turkey, Australia and elsewhere sent the two COP31 presidencies a joint letter, published by 350.org. They asked both countries to reject permits for new coal plants and expansions and to phase out coal power with a just-transition plan for workers. "If Türkiye and Australia want to lead the world in phasing out coal, they must demonstrate that leadership in their own countries first," said Süheyla Doğan of the Kazdağı Association.

Where the government's argument and its critics overlap#

The two sides agree on more than their rhetoric suggests. Both describe electrification and storage as central. Both cite Turkey's dependence on imported fuel as a risk. Even critics such as Baysal told DW that coal's position in Turkey's power market is "increasingly precarious" because of local opposition and weak finances.

The disagreement is about sequencing and commitment. The presidency argues that a host country can lead by building consensus and practical tools, and that finance for developing countries is the binding constraint. Critics argue that a host without a coal exit date and with a target above current emissions weakens its credibility when it asks others to implement. Turkey has a legal goal of net zero by 2053; CAT says the current target lets emissions keep rising until 2038.

The German absence#

One European absence drew attention before the opening. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is not traveling to Antalya, and Environment Minister Carsten Schneider will represent Germany, Frankfurter Rundschau reported. A government spokesman cited only "different interests and different schedules." The paper reported that the conference overlaps with Merz's 71st birthday, which he plans to spend with family after a morning cabinet meeting in Berlin. Katharina Dröge, Bundestag leader of the Greens, called the absence "an embarrassing signal to the world" and urged Germany to join a group of countries, including France, Spain and Denmark, pushing solidarity levies on private jets and oil profits. Luisa Neubauer of Fridays for Future called the decision "the worst conceivable signal to the international community," in a 567politics translation. Germany is represented by Schneider and Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan, both Social Democrats, ZDF reported, which Dröge said was not enough.

What to watch#

The leaders' segment on November 11 and 12 will show how much political weight the presidency can draw to Antalya. Inside the negotiations, the agenda includes efforts to make the Just Transition Mechanism operational, advance the Global Goal on Adaptation and address unmet finance commitments, Türkiye Today reported. Outside them, campaigners will watch whether Turkey uses the summit to announce anything on coal, and whether the short "implementation" decision Kurum and Bowen promised has measurable content. The test Kurum set for himself is concrete. He said the real life of Antalya's decisions "will begin the moment they leave these halls."

Differing perspectives

What should Turkey's COP31 presidency deliver, and is the host's own climate record a problem?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Finance for vulnerable countries comes first

  Who holds it: Power Shift Africa, a climate think tank, and its director Mohamed Adow

  Adow says the top priority, the Climate Finance Work Programme, will be adopted as presented, though African countries wanted a separate agenda item on tripling adaptation finance. He says the Belém commitment to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035 is not going away and that developed countries will be held to it in every room where finance is discussed. For African countries, he says, adaptation is not optional but survival.

  In their words: The Guardian live blog, quoting Mohamed Adow ↗

• Lead on coal at home first

  Who holds it: 50 frontline organizations from coal regions in Turkey, Australia and elsewhere, in a letter released by 350.org

  The groups ask both COP31 presidencies to reject permits for new coal plants and expansions, phase out coal power, and pair closures with just-transition plans for workers and local economies. They say a proposed new plant in Çanakkale contradicts Turkey's presidency and that Turkey and Australia must show leadership in their own countries before asking others to follow. They want COP31 to produce concrete commitments to leave coal behind.

  In their words: 350.org, joint letter from coal-region groups ↗

• Make Antalya an implementation summit

  Who holds it: COP31 President Murat Kurum and the Turkish government

  The presidency says the world does not need a new list of decisions but a working culture of delivery. It promotes a pledge to raise electricity to 35% of final energy use by 2035 and a Climate Implementation Bridge to match projects with funders. Kurum says climate policy is also development, food, energy and urban policy, that delay is one of the costliest bills, and that the Baku finance goal of $300 billion a year must now turn into investment.

  In their words: Milliyet, full text of Kurum's opening speech ↗

• The host's targets let emissions grow

  Who holds it: Climate Action Tracker researchers

  Climate Action Tracker says Turkey's 2035 target would let emissions plateau or even increase over the next decade and is not compatible with the 1.5 degree goal. It says the business-as-usual baseline is unexplained and unrealistically high, which makes the target look ambitious. The group says the host should strengthen its 2030 and 2035 targets and commit to phasing out coal, which supplied 34% of Turkey's electricity in 2025.

  In their words: Climate Action Tracker, Türkiye 2035 NDC assessment ↗

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