Fossil-Fuel-Dependent Hosts Shape COP31 Climate Summit Agenda

The Conference of Parties (COP) is the annual negotiating forum of countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit alongside the Convention on Biological Diversity. Under the Paris Agreement (2015), every signatory submits Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), its self-defined climate targets, once every five years. A foundational tension in these negotiations is the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities' (CBDR), formally set out in the 1992 Rio Declaration. It holds that developed nations, having industrialised earlier and emitted more historically, must bear greater responsibility for climate action, while developing countries retain space to pursue growth without uniform restrictions.

Normally, the country that physically hosts a COP also holds its presidency and chairs the negotiations; any split between host and president has so far been for logistical convenience only. COP31, to be held in Antalya, Türkiye, breaks this pattern. Neither Türkiye nor Australia was willing to concede its bid to host, so the two have split the roles: Türkiye holds the COP31 presidency, while Australia serves as vice-president overseeing the negotiations process. A pre-COP meeting, a routine preparatory step before every summit, was held in Fiji with Pacific Island countries to shape what will be negotiated.

This arrangement follows COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where the European Union pushed a 'fossil fuel roadmap' to formalise a global transition away from coal, oil and gas. India did not oppose the proposal, but only on the condition that it incorporate CBDR and not require all countries to follow identical transition pathways, a position consistent with its long-standing negotiating stance under the UNFCCC.