IEA chief Fatih Birol says COP31 in Antalya offers Türkiye a key chance to influence global climate talks, with Mediterranean warming and Africa’s climate burden likely to shape discussions.
The upcoming COP31 climate summit will offer Türkiye a major platform to shape the international climate agenda, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol said, as preparations gather pace for the global gathering in Antalya.
The conference is set to take place in the Turkish Mediterranean province of Antalya from Nov. 10 to 22, with the country expected to host more than 100 heads of state along with thousands of high-level participants.
Birol’s remarks came after he met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last week to discuss the summit, which he described as critically important.
Following the meeting, Birol said Erdoğan places strong emphasis on the climate conference.
“This genuinely pleased me. As with previous climate summits, I told Mr. President that both the International Energy Agency and I personally are ready to provide Türkiye with all possible support,” he told daily Hürriyet in an interview.
He said the summit represents a significant opportunity for Türkiye, with discussions likely to focus on solutions to increasingly frequent climate disasters worldwide.
“In particular, this is very important for Türkiye and the Turkish people to demonstrate their humanitarian values to show the sensitivity we have toward these issues and the efforts made by the Turkish people to make the world a better place,” Birol said.
He added that some regions are bearing a disproportionate burden of climate impacts.
“One of them is Africa. Although the African continent is responsible for only 3 percent of global carbon emissions, it is among the regions most severely impacted by climate change. I know that Türkiye has strong sensitivities toward helping find solutions to Africa’s problems,” he said.
Birol also pointed to the Mediterranean region as another hotspot of climate risk.
“According to our assessments, warming in the Mediterranean is around 20 percent higher than the global average and forest fires in the region have tripled in recent years. While the agenda of the Antalya summit has not yet been finalized, I believe these two issues could emerge as the main themes of the conference,” he said.
He added that he will hold separate meetings on Feb. 10 with Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum, who is also serving as the COP31 president.
Birol is also scheduled to deliver a speech on the global energy agenda and COP31 at a meeting in Ankara on Feb. 10, organized at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry and attended by all foreign ambassadors based in Türkiye.
