The Turkish city of Antalyain the south of the Anatolian country, will host the Climate Summit (COP31) next year, after several weeks of negotiations between Türkiye y Australia. The two countries, which were fighting to organize this annual world meeting, have thus reached an agreement so that Türkiye be the host, but with the Australian Government chairing the summit and being in charge of directing the negotiations.
“We have arrived at a formula that is as much a victory for Australia as it is for Türkiye. [Antes de la COP31 en Turquía] We will jointly organize a previous event in the Peaceful“, said this Thursday the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
Türkiye, like the others Mediterranean countriessuffers every year in summer an increasingly long season of lack of rain, forest firesburned hectares and increasingly widespread desertification. The city where the climate summit will be held next year, Antalya, in fact, has lost much of its forest mass due to summer flares.
Türkiye suffers longer and longer seasons of drought, forest fires and high temperatures
In practice, as the parties have announced, Türkiye will host the event, but Australia will lead the summit negotiations. The formula has surprised many since it is not the most common (although, for example, in 2019 Spain hosted a summit that led Chilein that case because the explosion of social protests in the country forced the event to be moved to the last minute).
To smooth over rough edges and avoid criticism, the Australian Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowencalled a press conference on Wednesday night to clarify that his country is the one that will have “all the powers of the presidency of the summit to manage the negotiations, appoint co-facilitators, prepare draft texts and issue the final decision”.
The 2027 climate summit will be in Ethiopia
The choice of the venue for next year’s climate summit responds to the criteria of United Nationsaccording to which each year this event must be hosted in one of the five regions into which the world is divided. According to the regulations, in 2026 the event must fall in a country of Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand or the United States and, therefore, it is up to the countries of these regions to agree to choose a candidate and then present him to the assembly. In 2027, however, it will be the turn of Africa: It has already been agreed that that year’s summit will take place in Ethiopia.
High level of pollution
In its candidacy, the Turkish Government has proposed a more global COP31 and less focused on regional problemsin the case of forest fires, also shared by Spain, Italy and Greece. The Anatolian country, highly industrialized but at the tail end of the most developed countries, it is one of the countries of the OECD with the most polluted air.
The Turkish population is exposed to pollution levels higher than the WHO limits.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO)almost the entire Turkish population is exposed to pollution levels higher than the WHO’s maximum standards. The organization estimates that about 65.000 personas in Türkiye died last year from conditions and diseases related to the air pollution. In Spain, the average annual figure is around 22.000 personas (Spain has half the population of Türkiye).
Türkiye, in fact, is also in the European glue in recyclingand it is the country that most garbage and plastics imports from the EU. A portion of these plastics is purchased by ghost recycling companies, which abandon or incinerate this garbage in poor regions of the country, especially in the regions of Adana y Gaziantep.
A study of Greenpeace in 2021 in the Adana region revealed that all samples obtained from ash, soil, water and sediment in places near landfills – in some cases these sites are located a few hundred meters from residential neighborhoods – contained high levels of heavy metals y organic toxins.
Subscribe to continue reading
