COP31 host Türkiye, has announced the dates for the COPs leadership summit and pre-COP meeting. In an open letterpublished earlier this week, COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum confirmed that the World Leaders Summit will take place on 11-12 November, three days into the conference instead of immediately before or at its opening, as has been the case in the past. Although negotiations will take place in Antalya, the leaders’ summit will take place in Istanbul. The Pre-COP will be in the Pacific islands, namely in Fiji, on 5-8 October, with a leaders event in Tuvalu. To add to the complexity, Australia’s climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, will lead negotiations under the title of “President of Negotiations” and “will have exclusive authority in leading the COP31 Negotiations, in consultation with Türkiye.” It is unclear how this consultation will work. In the coming weeks Kurum and Bowen are expected to release a letter setting out their COP priorities. Kurum said the host would continue to use the Troika approach which has been adopted in the past, that connects previous, current and future COP presidencies, to provide “stability and predictability.” However, he only mentioned working with Azerbaijan (COP29 host) and Brazil (COP30 host), and made no mention of Ethiopia, which is to host COP32.
