Australia, Turkey to Chair Cop31 With Coal Ties — SkimNews
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- Cop31 has a target on the table for electricity to supply 35% of final energy demand by 2035, with electrifying the global economy serving as the central plank of the summit’s action agenda.
- Australia will chair formal negotiations on a just transition for fossil-fuel workers, the loss-and-damage fund, climate finance and emissions cuts after a last-minute hosting compromise with Turkey at Cop30 in Belém.
- Turkey will lead a voluntary action agenda running alongside formal negotiations, with initiatives on cutting waste and methane among its listed priorities.
- Chris Bowen, Australia’s Cop31 president of negotiations, discussed shifting fossil-fuel exports toward clean electricity but refused to put any end date on coal.
- Turkey relies on coal as its biggest power source, while its national climate plan permits greenhouse-gas emissions to increase rather than fall.
- UN reports say global carbon emissions have yet to peak, preventing temperatures beyond 1.8C requires massive and urgent cuts, and overshooting 1.5C is now inevitable.
- Mehmet Dalkanat called July’s cancellation of plans to expand Turkey’s largest coal-fired plant a major victory after Afşin-Elbistan’s 40 years of coal pollution; 50 frontline organisations also urged both Cop31 presidents to end coal mining and use.
Why it matters: Co-chairing Cop31 puts coal-dependent Turkey and coal-exporting Australia under scrutiny over the 2035 electricity target: Bowen has set no coal end date, while Turkey’s plan allows emissions to rise. For 50 frontline organisations, the hosts’ climate-finance and just-transition agenda must therefore be weighed against their demand to end coal mining and use.
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