Turkish officials in talks for the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) sought to weaken language on climate change in several draft resolutions, annotated documents seen by Climate Home News show.<\/p>\n
Often working alongside Saudi Arabia, T\u00fcrkiye \u2013 host of COP31 next year \u2013 pushed to dilute wording on the climate crisis, the science of melting glaciers, and the role of young and Indigenous people in texts being prepared for approval in Nairobi this week. The final versions are still being worked out.<\/p>\n
When asked about the issue by Climate Home News, a UN official close to the negotiations said that \u201ccertain countries\u201d that don\u2019t want climate change to be mentioned are now \u201cmore emboldened than they were ever before to come forward and protect their national interests\u201d.<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s actions have raised concern in particular. \u201cIt\u2019s rather surprising,\u201d said \u00d6yk\u00fc Senlen Gundogan, an analyst at think-tank E3G. \u201cSenior Turkish politicians have often called climate change a crisis, and T\u00fcrkiye is among the countries most exposed to its impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye will host COP31 in the city of Antalya in November 2026 and the meeting is expected to be presided over by Turkish environment minister Murat Kurum, but Australia\u2019s Chris Bowen will lead the negotiations.<\/p>\n
As host, \u201cT\u00fcrkiye will be expected to lead by example and ensure its positions are consistent with the ambition it asks of others,\u201d Senlen said.<\/p>\n
Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, said T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s moves \u201clook like denial of climate science and of the need for action. This is the last thing the world needs from a COP host.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hare noted that T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s national climate plan is considered \u201ccritically insufficient\u201d<\/a> by Climate Action Tracker \u2013 its lowest ranking which is shared by just a handful of countries.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of messing with the science, T\u00fcrkiye needs to focus on strengthening its climate policies and implementation so it can be a forward-looking host of COP31, helping the world deal with the climate crisis that everyone else seems to recognise,\u201d he told Climate Home News.<\/p>\n The Turkish government did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Push to weaken UNEA resolutions<\/p>\n The UNEA, which takes place every two years in the Kenyan capital, allows governments to propose and amend resolutions on environmental issues ranging this year from coral reefs to critical minerals and AI.<\/p>\n This time around, Saudi Arabia \u2013 often joined by Russia, Iran and T\u00fcrkiye \u2013 tried to water down several texts, according to annotated drafts seen by Climate Home News. The US has not engaged, calling the UNEA \u201cwoke climate change theater\u201d.<\/p>\n In a Fiji-sponsored resolution on coral reefs, Saudi Arabia proposed describing climate change and ocean acidification as \u201cchallenges\u201d rather than \u201cthreats\u201d.<\/p>\n The EU, for its part, wanted a reference in this resolution to \u201cescalating challenges related to the climate crisis\u201d, but T\u00fcrkiye and Saudi Arabia suggested \u201cchallenges relating to the climate\u201d.<\/p>\n Glacier science downplayed<\/p>\n In a Tajikistan-sponsored motion on preserving glaciers and the wider cryosphere, T\u00fcrkiye opposed saying that \u201cgreater emphasis should be placed\u201d on enhancing scientific work and forecasting of changes, with this information integrated into decision-making. T\u00fcrkiye proposed just \u201crecognizing the importance\u201d of this work while Saudi Arabia objected to the whole reference to it.<\/p>\n T\u00fcrkiye, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran sought to delete all or part of a sentence recognising that accelerated retreat and melting of the cryosphere \u2013 which includes glaciers \u2013 is caused by climate change.<\/p>\n