Delegates included a climate finance program in the agenda but rejected African countries' requests for separate items on adaptation finance and trade, clearing the way for negotiations.
COP31 delegates adopted a negotiating agenda in Antalya, Turkey, avoiding a prolonged dispute over which subjects could be discussed. The agreement lets talks proceed; it does not itself settle substantive climate commitments.
The annual United Nations climate conference opened on 9 November 2026, with talks scheduled through 20 November. Turkey is hosting the meeting and managing its voluntary, nonbinding action agenda, while Australia presides over formal negotiations under a compromise between their competing bids.
The agenda includes discussion of the Climate Finance Work Programme, a two-year initiative agreed at COP30 after developing countries pressed for finance talks. The African group did not secure separate items on trade or on a promise to triple funding for adaptation—measures that help countries cope with climate change.
Developing countries had invoked the Paris Agreement’s requirement that developed countries provide resources to help them adapt to climate change and reduce emissions. An EU representative said the bloc was deeply concerned about revisiting the program and that COP30's agreed outcomes and compromises were increasingly being called into question, Carbon Brief said, as cited by The Guardian.
Mohamed Adow, director of climate think tank Power Shift Africa, said the commitment to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035 remained in place. He said the chair would consult adaptation and finance negotiators after the opening session.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre later announced a partnership with Canada and the UK that aims to generate $10 billion in climate finance by 2030 using private capital.
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The Guardian calculated that the national leaders expected to attend represented countries responsible for 14% of global carbon emissions. Its calculation used the UN’s scheduled speakers and 2025 emissions data. The initial calculation excluded EU countries whose national leaders were absent. Counting EU representation through European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would raise the share to about 20%.
The newspaper said national leaders do not directly influence the negotiations, but their attendance is seen as a signal of their governments' concern and their interventions can carry diplomatic weight.
The talks also cover efforts to keep warming as close as possible to the Paris Agreement’s goal and to help workers dependent on fossil fuels adjust to a low-carbon economy. The 2015 agreement committed countries to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial temperatures.
In October 2026, the UN Environment Programme said warming would exceed that threshold under all plausible emissions paths. Its report said bringing temperatures back below it this century would require near-zero emissions and the removal of hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, using technology or approaches such as reforestation.
Clea Schumer of the World Resources Institute expects discussion to address limiting the extent and duration of warming beyond the target. COP30's final decision included language on limiting that overshoot, although carbon dioxide removal had mostly gone unmentioned, Nature said. Oxford climate researcher Steve Smith said no country had yet included clearly quantified removal targets in its climate commitments to the UN.
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