Australia Cedes COP Hosting to Turkey,  Pacific Calls It a Betrayal

AFP/APP

Sydney: Australia has presented its decision to withdraw from hosting next year’s COP31 as a “big win”, but the move has triggered disappointment across Pacific Island nations that had hoped to co-host the global climate summit.

Canberra ended its long-running bid after Turkey — the only other contender — declined to step aside. Under a com

promise proposed on Wednesday, Turkey will host the summit while Australia will preside over negotiations in the lead-up to the event.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the outcome as a strategic victory. He said a pre-COP meeting dedicated to climate financing in the Pacific would help spotlight the region’s accelerating vulnerabilities.

“That will enable us to prioritise the issues confronting the Pacific,” he said, citing the existential threat to nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati, ocean degradation, and broader climate impacts.

Read More: https://thepenpk.com/australia-rejects-turkeys-offer-to-co-host-un-climate-summit/

But Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko expressed sharp disappointment.

“We are all not happy,” he told AFP, calling the COP process itself ineffective. “What has COP achieved over the years? Nothing. It’s just a talk fest and doesn’t hold the big polluters accountable.”

It would have been the first time the Pacific region hosted the UN’s flagship climate conference.

– ‘No climate justice’ –

Pacific Island leaders have long argued that COP summits sideline their voices and fail to deliver practical solutions, despite the region facing some of the world’s gravest climate risks. Many hoped co-hosting would shift that dynamic.

The setback also spares Australia from scrutiny over its own climate record. The country remains one of the world’s major fossil fuel exporters and has struggled to overcome the political and economic sensitivities surrounding emissions cuts.

Former Tuvalu prime minister Bikenibeu Paeniu said the decision exposed “the non-committal of Australia to climate justice”. Tuvalu — a chain of atolls acutely threatened by rising seas — has repeatedly warned that parts of the country may become uninhabitable within decades.

Paeniu said the Pacific deserved more than a pre-COP event while the main summit goes elsewhere.

“What a miss — but the Pacific will continue its fight no matter what,” he said, adding that regional countries should “seriously remodel their relationship with Australia.”