The United Nations climate summit will seek to turn past decisions into action, with financing the main focus, Turkey says, as it prepares to host and chair COP31.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said financing was the most important task, with almost $US1 trillion ($A1.4 trillion) needed to help developing countries meet climate change targets.
He said raising public awareness about climate policies was essential at a time when wars and security crises dominated the global agenda.
“Important decisions have been taken in every COP so far,” Kurum said in an interview at a diplomacy forum in Antalya at the weekend.
“We will follow up these decisions, but what is essential is putting them into practice.
“The expectation of the world, of humanity, from us is to move to practice.
“Let’s take steps to realise the NDCs that countries have put forth – and there are some countries who have not put them forward,” Kurum said, referring to the nationally determined contribution (NDC) of each nation.
He said while wars were inevitable, Turkey would call on every nation to focus on the “big picture” and see the imminent threats posed by climate change.
The annual COP conference is the main global forum for driving action on climate change.
The long-established consensus among the world’s scientists is that climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse.
Its main cause is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, which trap heat in the atmosphere.
After a lengthy stand-off in 2025, Turkey and Australia agreed on a format in which Turkey would host the COP31 summit in November and hold its presidency, while Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen would lead the negotiation process.
The COP conference will take place in November in the southern Turkish province of Antalya.
The minister – who will also be COP31 President – said Turkey wanted the conference to be “the COP of implementation”, where actions take precedence over promises.
“We want all countries to hand in their NDCs by COP31. We are working for this, we are also working for this within the UN,” he said, adding that $150 million in financing was needed for developing countries to prepare their NDCs.
One of the most significant perceived shortcomings from 2025’s COP30 was the lack of concrete agreement on language to promote the global phasing-out of fossil fuels.
Asked how the issue would be addressed at COP31, Kurum said Turkey aimed to press countries to implement the decisions taken on this issue at COP30, adding technology to allow such a shift needed to be further developed.
He said Turkey was using both renewable energy and fossil fuels because it needed to meet its needs and be self-sufficient, but added it would move away from this if it found cheaper energy through new technology.
“We must bring moving away from fossil fuels to the global agenda by providing a transition period,” he said.
“During COP31, we will put into effect those partial decisions taken in COP30.”