COP 31: Turning Ambition into Action

From 9 to 20 November 2026, Antalya, Turkey, will host the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), bringing together world leaders, governments, businesses and civil society to accelerate global climate action. Turkey will hold the presidency of the summit, while Australia will lead the formal climate negotiations in a joint partnership. It is the latest session of the decision-making body of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Since 1995, these annual summits have served as the primary global platform for negotiating and advancing collective action against climate change. At COP 31, across more than 130 events, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will put science, solutions and partnerships in the spotlight, showcasing what it takes to turn climate commitments into implementation. 
Before the upcoming meeting, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said, “Every fraction of a degree avoided will save lives, protect ecosystems and reduce economic losses. There are no good outcomes if we remain above 1.5 degrees Celsius. Now is the time to double down on climate action, not give up on it.”
UNEP has set up some priorities for negotiation at COP31. Those include cutting methane and other non-Carbon dioxide super pollutants to reduce near-term warming; strengthening climate-resilient cities and communities; advancing sustainable cooling and heat resilience; informing negotiations with science and evidence; promoting synergies across climate, biodiversity and land agendas, and mobilising finance and implementation support for developing countries. These priorities are important, but these are governed by how finance initiatives reduce the gap between commitment and implementation. This should focus on highlighting progress in climate finance since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, identifying the key gaps and challenges that remain in aligning financial flows with climate goals, and advancing innovative financing solutions to accelerate investment in climate action.

UNEP realised that “investors play a key role in financing investable solutions for the energy transition and climate resilience”.  But how public-private collaboration and consistent policy frameworks can lead to investable opportunities needs to be explored further at COP 31. It has been realised that financing the transition to net zero emissions require substantial investment in industries, energy systems and infrastructure. However, various companies face difficulties in turning their transition ambitions into bankable projects. It has been observed that investment risks, policy uncertainty and limited access to suitable funding can slow progress. Hope that leaders from commercial banking and international development finance discuss at COP 31 how to close the gap.
It is to be noted here that Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) developed a taxonomy for sustainable finance, which is a multi-tiered and science-based classification system designed to define and standardise green and transition economic activities across ASEAN. It serves as a common regional language to channel capital into sustainable investments while preventing greenwashing, which is, in fact, false claims of being environmentally friendly. At COP 31, this can be explored further for actionable opportunities for stakeholders to strengthen coordination, address financing gaps and catalyse greater action and collaboration towards scaling adaptation finance.
While taking various actions for climate change mitigation and adaptation, we should remind ourselves of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on 14 December 2022 regarding promoting zero-waste initiatives to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This resolution also requests the Secretary-General to inform Member States about the implementation of the present resolution.
Ahead of the COP 31, UN Climate Change is mandated to produce the three reports: Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Synthesis Report, Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) Progress Report. Data from NDC report suggests that between 1 January 2024 and 31 August 2026, 127 new NDCs, representing 154 Parties to the Paris Agreement, were recorded in the NDC registry. Together, they cover around 70 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. NAP report suggests that as of 20 October 2026, 146 countries had initiated and launched NAP process. While a total of 81 developing countries, including 29 least developed countries (LDCs) and 17 small island developing states (SIDS), have submitted their NAPs, significant barriers remain, particularly in accessing finance. BTR Synthesis Report summarises progress in implementing nationally determined contributions during the reporting period. This year’s BTR Synthesis report shows adaptation emerging as a central focus in countries’ BTRs. Although providing such information is not mandatory, 92 per cent of Parties have included an adaptation component in their BTRs.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell stated, “These reports show more governments are taking climate action right across their economies to bank the vast benefits of clean energy and climate resilience.  In this respect, these reports are more evidence that almost every major economy – and many medium-sized and smaller economies – now see climate action as a central driver of economic growth, jobs, and affordable and secure energy.” However, he also added, “This year’s reports demonstrate again that collective progress remains clearly insufficient, that global transitions are very uneven, and that many countries face substantial barriers to delivering their targets and pledges.”
In short, we hope that the decisions made at COP31 will influence national carbon reduction targets and energy policies towards sustainable development strategies and climate finance mechanisms. The Paris Agreement has already reshaped global policy frameworks, and COP31 is expected to further drive the next phase of climate action and economic transformation. Various ambitious projects were declared at past COPs, but there has been no implementation. In fact, the world does not have an ideas gap; it has an implementation gap. We hope COP31 will turn those ambitions into actions. Through science, partnerships, finance and practical solutions, this is possible.
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The writer is a UK-based academic who writes on science, philosophy and education