It’s that time of year again, so it’s time for Cliscep to have a thread for COP31 articles. To get the ball rolling, below are a few early efforts from the Guardian.

The green light for the largest coalmine in NSW history is shocking proof that our governance systems are betraying Australians

At the start of the month the Guardian took aim at COP31 chair, Australia.

There is no greater treachery than this failure to face up to the climate crisis. How can we now fend off despair?

‘We want action’: Fijian climate activist sends message ahead of UN talks in Pacific

This article is three days old, and the holding of the pre-COP meeting at Fiji offers the Guardian the opportunity to trot out the old trope about rising sea levels and “climate justice” calling for compensation to be paid to Pacific Islanders, because “[t]he Pacific Islands are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, despite accounting for just 0.02% of global emissions”.

The article also draws attention to the strange arrangements surrounding COP31. Perhaps the other COPs were too boring, too unsuccessful, so it was time to try something different. Whatever:

Turkey and Australia agreed last year that the Pacific would host preparatory meetings before Cop31 under a compromise deal to resolve a standoff about where the 2026 summit would be held. The summit will be hosted in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya in November, while Australia will chair negotiations.

Revealed: the methane mega-leaks from UN climate summit host Turkey

Yesterday’s offering from the Guardian takes aim at the host nation, Turkey: “Cop31 leader calling for global curbs on climate-heating gas has landfills producing some of world’s worst plumes”. It’s all very awkward, a bit like when Brazil hosted the COP at the same time as deciding it wanted to become one of the planet’s major oil producers.

The revelation that Turkey has some of the world’s worst landfill methane leaks comes at an awkward time: in November, the country will host the next UN global climate summit, Cop31, and has put cutting methane emissions at the top of the action agenda it wants all nations to agree on.

Mixed start for pre-Cop as just two non-Pacific leaders accept Australian invitation to climate summit

Perhaps this piece from yesterday is getting us ready for the likelihood that COP31 will be another talking shop that doesn’t move the dial. If expectations are lowered in advance, then perhaps the lack of any meaningful outcome won’t be so disappointing, and we can all move on to COP32 next year without being too downbeat.

I suppose pre-COPs are necessary to put the framework in place in advance of the COPs themselves, but one does wonder what 4,000 people can achieve in Fiji. Surely an agenda-setting meeting should involve a handful of highly focussed individuals? Instead, we are told:

Anthony Albanese joins about 4,000 people in Fiji for preparatory meeting for year-ending Cop31 UN climate summit….

…The Australian government invited national leaders to visit the low-lying atoll nation of Tuvalu, but distance, geopolitical ruptures and the expectation that leaders would prioritise a trip to the Turkish Mediterranean resort city of Antalya for more significant climate talks in a matter of weeks made that a difficult sell.

After declining to comment for days, the Australian government acknowledged on Monday that only 14 national leaders would make the trip to Tuvalu on Tuesday, and just two of those – Timor-Leste’s José Ramos-Horta and Mauritius’ Dharam Gokhool – have travelled from beyond the Pacific….

Oh well, at least the leaders’ carbon footprints are being kept under control at this stage. That’s just as well, since apparently Türkiye is to host over 100,000 people at its largest-ever climate conference.

What will happen there? Well, in a triumph of hope over expectation, “Samed Agirbas, who is…COP31’s High-Level Climate Champion, said Türkiye wants the conference to produce action rather than new pledges.”

Why is that a triumph of hope over expectation? Well, he also (very perceptively) also said this:

…more than 80 decisions have been taken at past COP meetings, “but most of them have no counterpart on the ground, and no way of being implemented.”

My money is on more of the same this time round, but we’ll see. Please feel free to draw attention to COP31 stories below the line – that’s what this article is for.

13 Comments

  1. Will St Greta be walking to Antalya or arriving by boat?, no COP is complete without St Greta and her sanctimonious attitude to ANY cause in the headlines.

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  2. Jo Nova on the “pre-cop”, which to an entomologist sounds like preparatory moves leading to copulation.

    We obviously have attendance figures, but it would be really interesting to know how media and wider interest in the COPs has waxed and waned over the years.

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  3. IOM event “Human Mobility on the Road to COP31 of UNFCCC” at the Brussels Climate Week: From Climate Risk to Climate Resilience | European Climate and Health Observatory Climate-ADAPT

    The blurb – “IOM will host the event as part of the Brussels Climate Week: “From Climate Risk to Climate Resilience: Human Mobility on the Road to COP31 of UNFCCC”. The briefing will explore how human mobility can be integrated into COP31 climate action, with a focus on adaptation, loss and damage, climate finance, just transition, health, youth engagement and EU external action. If you are interested in attending, please contact gobrusselscad@iom.int.”

    Well as a IOM resident I might have been interested to hear what “Human Mobility” means, but the “When Oct 13, 2026 from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, Where Brussels” tells me all I need to know.

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  6. This story is about COP33, not COP31, but perhaps it’s a straw in the wind:

    “IPCC is under pressure to delay publication of key global climate report

    AR7 report was scheduled for 2028 in time for Cop33 summit but some petro-states and major developing countries want to postpone it”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/13/ipcc-pressure-delay-publication-climate-report-ar7-cop33

    I think the last paragraph from the introduction to the article (below) is potentially quite revealing, implying as it does that the reports may be as much political as scientific.

    Scientists are coming under pressure from some petro-states and major developing countries to delay publication of a key global report on the climate, despite pleas from vulnerable countries worried that postponement could spell disaster for them.

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN-convened body of the world’s leading climate scientists, is meeting this week in Addis Ababa to discuss its seventh assessment report, a comprehensive survey of all that is known about the climate crisis.

    The report, known as AR7, was scheduled to appear in 2028 in time for deliberations at the UN climate summit, Cop33, late that year. Cop33 is scheduled to critique governments’ actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris agreement target of limiting temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

    But a group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia and including India and China, is pressing for publication of the report to be pushed back to 2029.

    They argue this is necessary in order to allow developing countries to have more input into the scientific findings. Climate science has been dominated for three decades by countries and blocs including the EU, the UK and the US, though under Donald Trump’s presidency in the last of these it has has been severely curtailed….

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  7. “Australia and Turkey criticised for hosting UN climate conference while embracing coal

    Global campaign group 350.org urges Cop31 hosts to announce a coal phase-out date and national roadmaps to get off fossil fuels”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/05/australia-and-turkey-criticised-for-hosting-un-climate-conference-while-embracing-coal

    The hosts of the next major United Nations climate conference, Turkey and Australia, are facing criticism for being partners in a coal supply chain while remaining near silent on the need for a global deal to rapidly get off fossil fuels.

    With the Cop31 summit in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya just a month away, the two countries running the fortnight-long talks have been accused by activists of a “vacuum of action” on plans for a transition away from coal, gas and oil – a key goal of many nations at the talks….

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  8. Clearly we’re doomed, because this is never going to happen:

    “World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says

    Action needed to avoid disastrous overshoot of climate targets, according to organisation’s environment body”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/21/world-cut-emissions-un-climate-crisis

    The world needs to cut carbon emissions by nearly a fifth in the next four years, and by close to half within a decade, to avoid overshooting climate targets by a disastrous margin.

    Although the “window has closed” on holding temperature rises to 1.5C, in line with scientific advice, limiting the “overshoot” of that target is still possible, according to the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

    But countries are failing to translate their long-term targets on reducing emissions into short-term actions, a report on the “emissions gap” between climate goals and policies has found.

    Global carbon output appears to have stalled: the emission levels in 2025 were broadly similar to those of the previous year. But Unep analysts were wary of calling it a peak or plateau, given the vast uncertainties of geopolitics and an increased reliance on fossil fuels, despite strong growth in renewable energy….

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  10. “Government welcomes Official Partners for COP31 Pavilion

    Kraken Technologies, National Grid, Octopus Energy, and SSE will sponsor the UK Pavilion at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye.”

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-welcomes-official-partners-for-cop31-pavilion

    This year’s COP31 UK Pavilion Official Partners represent some of the UK’s leading clean energy and digital technology businesses.

    National Grid and SSE have been official UK Pavilion partners every year since COP26 in Glasgow, while Octopus Energy has sponsored the Pavilion since COP28.

    The UK government has also welcomed Kraken Technologies as a new partner to the COP31 portfolio.

    All 4 partners met with Katie White, the Minister for Climate Transition, on Thursday 15 October to discuss how government and business can work together to accelerate the clean energy transition and deliver practical action at COP31.

    Sponsorship reduces the cost of the Pavilion to the taxpayer and gives partners an opportunity to demonstrate to COP delegates how UK expertise, investment and innovation can deliver the energy transition.

    Throughout COP31, the UK Pavilion will host panel discussions, roundtables and receptions showcasing British climate leadership, bringing together governments, businesses and civil society to turn ambition into practical action.

    COP31 takes place from 9 to 20 November 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye, and the UK Pavilion will be open for the duration of the conference.

    Followed by PR blurbs for the companies concerned.

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  11. “Katie White, the Minister for Climate Transition” – what a strange job/role title. Anyway, take it she has been covered by someone before, but she is new to me in this role. A quick google –

    “Ministerial role, Minister of State (Minister for Climate Transition), Organisations: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Current role holder: Katie White OBE MP

    Responsibilities – The minister is responsible for: net zero strategy and carbon budgets, Electrification Champion, electric vehicles (EVs) (joint with DfT), international climate and energy policy, G20 climate and energy lead, climate finance, green finance, citizen engagement, carbon markets, climate science, innovation for climate and energy, climate security, methane emissions, biomass sustainability, biomethane, tidal, geothermal

    Current role holder Katie White OBE MP – Katie White was appointed Minister of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on 21 July 2026. She was previously Minister for Climate in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero between 7 September 2025 and 21 July 2026.

    She was elected as the MP for Leeds North West in July 2024. Education, Katie graduated from the University of Glasgow.

    Career outside politics, Before going into politics, Katie worked at Friends of the Earth where she co-led the campaign for the Climate Change Act. In 2009, she worked with the UK government to prepare for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), before going on to work at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). She was previously Executive Director at WWF-UK.

    She was awarded an OBE for her services to tackling climate change.”

    I’m sure she is a bright & capable lady & seems ideal for the role given her background.

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  13. Just noticed this from above –

    “Katie White was appointed Minister of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on 21 July 2026”

    “She was previously Minister for Climate in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero between 7 September 2025 and 21 July 2026”

    Take that is just a higher role she takes on.

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