Australia's Minister for Climate Change Chris Bowen has travelled to Antalya in Türkiye, where the United Nations climate change conference COP31 will take place in November 2026. Australia is not hosting the summit, but has been given the role of President of the negotiations, which involves leading the main negotiating tracks and seeking consensus among the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Formal presidency of COP31 belongs to Türkiye, which is hosting the summit. The Pacific region is holding a pre-summit meeting, which serves as an additional platform for regional positions ahead of the main negotiations. The agreement on the shared presidency was reached at COP30 in Belém. Some 198 Parties to the Framework Convention are taking part in the negotiations, so the coordination task is of considerable scale, and the role of President of the negotiations involves seeking compromises between different groups of countries.

Australia has identified four priorities for the conference: electrification, investment in clean energy, climate finance for the Pacific region, and ocean protection. Among the arguments for the first priority are data on global investment in clean energy, which in 2026 is forecast to approach US$2.2 trillion. This investment is roughly twice the spending on fossil fuels. Deployment of renewable capacity in 2025–2030 is also expected to nearly double compared with the previous five years.

For Australia's domestic policy, these goals have concrete benchmarks. The national target is a 43% reduction in emissions relative to 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050. The 2035 target is a reduction of 62% to 70% below 2005 levels. The Safeguard Mechanism applies to facilities emitting more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year. Baselines for these facilities decline by 4.9% annually to 2030, and excess emissions can be offset using ACCU or SMC units.

At the same time, limitations should be noted. The outcomes of COP31 do not directly change Australian legislation. Domestic implementation of agreements will take place gradually, through existing instruments. Alongside this, climate disclosure rules are already in effect, being introduced in stages from 2025 depending on the group of entities. For limited assurance and then reasonable assurance of Scope 1 and Scope 2 indicators, a transition from limited to reasonable assurance is provided from 2030, and Scope 3 disclosure becomes mandatory from the second reporting year. Entities must also test the resilience of their assets under at least two warming scenarios.

Separately, the issue concerns renewable energy and grid projects. These may be subject to referral under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) if they are of national significance. Typical challenges on such sites include compensation for vegetation loss, soil contamination, acid sulphate soils, and protection of cultural heritage, which usually require separate consideration already at the planning stage.

Chris Bowen's trip to Türkiye takes place at the start of preparations for the summit, so the priorities by which Australia will seek to build coalitions of like-minded countries are being set now. Specific negotiation outcomes will become known only after the conference concludes in November 2026.

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