Australia hands COP31 to Türkiye but Chris Bowen to lead negotiations

Adelaide will not hold next year's UN climate summit, with Climate Minister Chris Bowen revealing Australia was willing to cede hosting rights to Türkiye in exchange for it handing him the reins of the negotiations and cementing a major role for the Pacific at the summit.

There had been a growing expectation that Australia would drop its bid to host COP31 in Adelaide as it struggled to convince Türkiye withdraw from the contest.

Under UN rules, if the two countries were unable to strike a deal, then the meeting location would automatically revert to Germany, which hosts the United Nations body responsible for the Paris Agreement.

Mr Bowen told reporters in Belem that while negotiations were ongoing, both countries were willing to make "significant concessions" to strike a deal.

"Significant concession is what's required when you are trying to find consensus," he said.

"Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all. But we can't have it all. This process works on consensus."

While details of the sharing arrangements are still being finalised, Mr Bowen said Türkiye would still hold the formal title of COP president and would "handle the venues and the operation" of the COP, but that he would be the "president of the COP for the purposes of negotiations".

"I would have all the powers of the COP presidency to manage, handle the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text, to issue the cover decision," he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who earlier this week acknowledged that the UN's rules did not allow for a co-presidency, said this option presented a workaround and was an "outstanding result".

"It wasn't possible under the rules to have a joint presidency, but Türkiye has agreed that Minister Bowen and Australia will handle the negotiations in the lead-up to the COP," he said.

Pacific leaders consulted

The decision has bitterly disappointed climate advocates who championed Adelaide's bid, saying it would supercharge Australia's renewable energy industry and leverage the Pacific's moral authority to drive more ambition on global climate action.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said he was "disappointed" but understood the prime minister's decision.

"He has taken a position to try and navigate the frankly obscene process that exists internationally," he said.

"We put our best foot forward and won the rights as a city and a state to host COP if it was won internationally, and internationally that was not able to be achieved."

Gavan McFadzean from the Australian Conservation Foundation said it was "a massive missed opportunity for Australia and the Pacific".

"Communities in the Pacific have been denied an important global platform to show how global inaction on climate change presents them with an existential threat," he said.

Shiva Gounden, head of the Pacific campaign at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said it was "disappointing" but added "the Pacific's fight for survival does not rise or fall on a single hosting decision".

"For us, climate action has never been about prestige. It is about protecting and preserving our homelands, our cultures, and our future with dignity and humility."

But some climate experts were more optimistic about the compromise.

Erwin Jackson from Monash University's Climateworks Centre said the outcome would ensure "Australia and the Pacific will remain central to global climate transition."

"The region has everything to gain by building global momentum towards clean energy," he said.

"Australia's leadership role as the president holding the pen on text negotiation outcomes and leaders meeting in the Pacific will be highly influential in the outcomes of COP31.

"Strong regional leadership will be critical to accelerating the shift to a low-emissions future across Australia, the Pacific and the world."

Mr Bowen said both countries had to reach an agreement in order to avoid "12 months with a lack of leadership, no COP president in place, no plan".

"I know some people [will] be disappointed in that outcome," he said.

"Other people, of course, would be even more disappointed if it had gone to Bonn [in Germany] without a COP president in place. This is a better outcome than that."

Mr Bowen also confirmed that Australia was looking to ensure a "pre-COP" leaders meeting would be held in the Pacific under the deal, as well as a major fundraising round for the Pacific Resilience Facility.

Australia has been canvassing these options with Pacific leaders over the past 48 hours as diplomats have scrambled to land a deal.

Mr Albanese said he had spoken directly to Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape and Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and that the pre-COP Pacific event would ensure "the issues confronting this region, the very existence of island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati … will be front and centre".

PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told news agency AFP Pacific leaders were "all not happy, and disappointed it's ended up like this".