After governments failed to agree on a roadmap away from fossil fuels at COP30, Australia will “continue to argue” for a transition away from coal, oil and gas in energy systems at next year’s COP31 climate talks, the incoming “President of Negotiations” has said.

Sitting alongside ministers from the Pacific islands of Vanuatu, Palau and the Solomon Islands on the last evening of COP30 in Brazil, Australian climate minister Chris Bowen was asked about negotiations to transition away from fossil fuels. He told the press conference that he “wasn’t going to start getting into the COP31 negotiations because we haven’t quite finished COP30 yet.”

But he added that Australia and the Pacific helped design a global target to transition away from fossil fuels, which was agreed two years ago at COP28 in Dubai. “We’ll continue to argue for things that are in the best interest of Australia and the Pacific together,” he said.

In a last-minute deal in Belém, Australia and Türkiye agreed to share responsibilities at next year’s UN climate summit, with the conference taking place in the city of Antalya – located in the Turkish Riviera – but with the Australians taking a leading role in the negotiations.

Governments at COP30 failed to collectively agree to launch a roadmap away from fossil fuels, with the Brazilian presidency stating that around 85 countries were in favour and 80 against. The list of countries in favour was published by Carbon Brief, but the countries Brazil says were against have not been named.

Countries did collectively set up a Global Implementation Accelerator, which is linked to the COP28 decision where the fossil fuel transition is mentioned. Voluntary initiatives were also launched at the summit, with Brazil promising to draw up a fossil fuel transition roadmap by COP31 and Colombia hosting an international conference on the transition in April.

Bowen said that COP31 “won’t be an easy negotiation” but “in one way, that’s why I’m looking forward to it so much because hard negotiations can lead to very good outcomes, as recent days have shown”.

Division of COP31 duties

After Australia and Türkiye agreed last week to share COP31 responsibilies, details of their arrangement emerged. Bowen will be COP “President of Negotiations”, which a joint statement describes as “exclusive authority in relation to negotiations”, while the Turkish environment minister Murat Kurum will be “COP President” and will hold the gavel which is banged to formally agree decisions.

Joanna Depledge, a COP historian and research fellow at the University of Cambridge, said on social media that this division of authority “created the potential for damaging confusion”, adding that “COP decision-making is already messy at climate COPs. It needs more certainty, not less”.

“If there is a difference of views between Türkiye and Australia, consultations will take place until the difference is resolved to mutual satisfaction,” the joint statement put out by the UN’s climate change body said.

“We are friends,” Kurum told Saturday’s press conference in Turkish, expressing his hope that the “shared pain” that Turks and Australians suffered in the First World War’s Canakkale or Gallipoli campaign be turned “into a means for friendship, cooperation and service to humanity”. He then left so that Bowen and the Pacific ministers could talk further and take questions.

According to the arrangement between the two nations, the speech-making summit of heads of state, the two week COP trade fair and negotiations will be hosted in the coastal resort of Antalya, while a lower-profile pre-COP meeting will be held in a Pacific nation, presided over by Australia.

At COP31, there will be a dedicated session on the the climate finance needs of small island developing states, at which pledges to the regional fund Pacific Resilience Facility are expected.

Australia and Turkiye will divide up the appointment of ‘champions’, people who represent the COP Presidency and try to inspire global climate action. Australia will appoint youth champions while Turkiye will appoint High-Level Champions and run the Action Agenda – the push for climate action from businesses, civil society and local governments as well as national governments.

Colombia seeks to speed up a “just” fossil fuel phase-out with first global conference

Pacific hosts a Pre-COP

The agreement has dissapointed people in both nations. The leader of the Australia’s opposition Green Party called it an “embarassing result” for Australia while a former Turkish climate negotiator told Climate Home News that, without presiding over negotiations, Turkiye would do all the work while Australia makes the decisions.

But Pacific ministers celebrated the agreement. Vanuatu’s climate minister Ralph Regenvanu said that the arrangement is “unprecedented but I believe there will be many more to come because it’s a great model, especially for smaller countries who can’t afford to host a COP”. “I would like to be involved in the agenda setting which is, for us, the most important thing”, he added.

Palau’s climate minister Stephen Victor said he hoped that government leaders would come to the pre-COP in the Pacific, which would be an opportunity to “showcase the impacts of climate change on the Pacific Island region and hear voices and solutions from the region”. Pre-COPs are usually attended mainly by ministers rather than presidents or prime ministers.

Led by Bowen, Australia has long argued for a joint Australian-Pacific COP. Bowen thanked Kurum for “immedately agreeing” to all Australia’s demands on Pacific involvement. Kurum said he wanted to work so that “regions that are most affected by climate change, such as the Mediterranean and the Pacific are given a louder voice on the global agenda”.

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Australia’s COP31 Co-President vows to fight alongside Pacific for a fossil fuel transition