Turkish official outlines plans for Antalya summit, including closer coordination across climate, biodiversity and desertification commitments
By Bunmi Yekini
Türkiye will use its presidency of the U.N. COP31 climate summit to push for greater implementation of global environmental commitments, with a focus on turning pledges into concrete action, a senior Turkish official said.
Kasım Yenigün, director general of Türkiye’s General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion, said preparations were underway for the climate conference, scheduled to take place in Antalya in November.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Yenigün said 2026 marked what he described as a “triple COP year”, with major U.N. meetings on biodiversity, desertification and climate change taking place in succession.
Türkiye is a party to the three so-called Rio conventions, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
While the U.N. climate summit is held annually, meetings of the conventions on biodiversity and desertification take place every two years.
Yenigün said the convergence of the three processes had made 2026 particularly significant as Türkiye prepared to host COP31.
Türkiye was working with Australia on negotiations while developing a wider action agenda for the Antalya summit, he said.
The agenda would cover issues including zero waste, electrification, “climate bridges”, cooperation among the Rio conventions, and seas and oceans.
A key priority, Yenigün said, would be strengthening what Türkiye calls “Rio synergy”, an effort to better coordinate commitments and action across the three environmental conventions.
“Türkiye is taking a very important step on Rio synergy this year,” Yenigün said.
He said commitments under the three conventions had often remained at the pledge stage, and Türkiye was working through a dedicated process to bring them closer together and translate them into practical action.
Türkiye’s institutions responsible for biodiversity, climate change and combating desertification were developing projects and policies that could offer examples for other countries, he added.
Yenigün said Türkiye had also used COP17 to intensify engagement with other governments and organisations, with officials holding bilateral meetings at the country’s pavilion in the conference’s Blue Zone.
The pavilion had drawn considerable interest because of Türkiye’s upcoming COP31 presidency, he said, attracting heads of state, ministers, government delegations, civil society groups, international organisations and academics.
Participants at COP17 had also shown strong interest in the Antalya summit, with many indicating their intention to attend, Yenigün said.
Türkiye was stepping up preparations for November, with the government seeking to make COP31 a summit focused more heavily on implementation, he added.
“COP31 will be a very different meeting, a very different conference,” Yenigün said. “It will be a COP where we will see commitments beginning to turn into action.”