By Christine Chen and Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that Australia would not co-host the COP31 climate summit with Turkey amid an ongoing stalemate between the two countries.
Turkey has proposed jointly leading next year’s U.N. climate summit with Australia and the discussions on the hosting standoff remain unresolved, Turkish diplomatic sources told Reuters on Sunday.
“No, we won’t be co-hosting because co-hosting isn’t provided for under the rules of the (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change),” Albanese said during a media briefing in Melbourne.
“So that’s not an option and people are aware that it is not an option, which is why it has been ruled out.”
Australia and Turkey both submitted bids in 2022 to host COP31 and neither has withdrawn, leading to an attention-sapping impasse that must be overcome at this year’s COP30 meeting currently taking place in Belem, Brazil.
The annual COP, or Conference of the Parties, is the world’s main forum for driving climate action. But it has grown over the years from diplomatic gatherings into vast trade shows where host countries can promote economic prospects.
The host matters because they set the agenda and lead the diplomacy needed to reach global agreements.
Albanese this month wrote to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in an attempt to resolve the tussle as he pushes to host the summit with Pacific island nations for the first time.
A regional diplomatic bloc of 18 countries, the Pacific Islands Forum, is backing Australia’s bid. Several Pacific island nations are at risk from rising seas.
(Reporting by Christine Chen and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Tom Hogue and Stephen Coates)
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