The long-running stalemate over the host of the 2026 UN climate summit has ended after Australia withdrew its bid, paving the way for Turkey to organise COP31 in the Mediterranean city of Antalya.

The unexpected compromise, struck during negotiations at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, has surprised observers and raised questions about how the summit will function under an unprecedented leadership arrangement.

Under UN rotational rules, the 2026 COP presidency falls to a group that includes Western European nations and Australia. Both Australia and Turkey had insisted on hosting rights, leaving the process deadlocked for months. To avoid the summit defaulting to Bonn—the headquarters of the UN climate body—Australia agreed to step aside.

In return, Australia secured the right for its climate minister, Chris Bowen, to serve as COP31 president, despite the talks taking place in Turkey. This marks a rare break from UN convention, where the COP president is normally from the host nation.

Bowen defended the decision, arguing that a failure to reach consensus would have left the global climate process leaderless.

“Consensus means if someone objected to our bid, it would go to Bonn,” Bowen told reporters in Belém. “That would mean 12 months with a lack of leadership… that would be irresponsible for multilateralism in this challenging environment.”

Turkey will appoint its own president as well—responsible for managing the venue, logistics, and scheduling—while Bowen will lead the negotiations themselves.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the agreement as an “outstanding result,” stressing that Pacific climate concerns would remain “front and centre.” He said he had spoken with leaders from Papua New Guinea and Fiji ahead of the compromise.

But not all Pacific leaders welcomed the news. Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told AFP his country was “not happy” with the outcome. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele had earlier said he would be “disappointed” if Australia failed to secure the hosting rights outright.

Canberra had proposed hosting COP31 in Adelaide as a co-organised event with Pacific Island states—among the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions.

Turkey, meanwhile, argued that it deserved the meeting after stepping aside in 2021 to allow the UK to host COP26 in Glasgow.

The impasse had become a growing embarrassment at COP30, with delegates eager to see the issue resolved before the Brazilian summit concludes. Without agreement, the summit would have defaulted to Bonn—an outcome seen as a failure of diplomatic process.

The final deal also includes a gesture to the Pacific: a pre-COP meeting will be held on a Pacific island nation before the main conference convenes in Antalya.

The compromise still requires formal approval by more than 190 countries gathered in Belém, but diplomats say objections are unlikely given the difficulty of reaching the agreement.

If ratified, COP31 will mark the first time in the history of the climate talks that the negotiating president comes from a different country than the host—an arrangement that will test the flexibility of UN climate diplomacy at a moment of escalating global environmental urgency. (ILKHA)