Saudi Arabia and COP31 host Türkiye move to weaken climate language at UNEA

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.

Often working alongside Saudi Arabia, Türkiye – host of COP31 next year – pushed to dilute wording on the climate crisis, the science of melting glaciers, and the role of young and Indigenous people, as well as on support for developing nations, in texts being prepared for approval in Nairobi this week. The final versions are still being worked out.

When asked about the issue by Climate Home News, a UN official close to the negotiations said that “certain countries” that don’t want climate change to be mentioned are now “more emboldened than they were ever before to come forward and protect their national interests”.

Türkiye’s actions have raised concern in particular. “It’s rather surprising,” said Öykü Senlen Gundogan, an analyst at think-tank E3G. “Senior Turkish politicians have often called climate change a crisis, and Türkiye is among the countries most exposed to its impacts.”

Türkiye 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’s Chris Bowen will lead the negotiations.

As host, “Türkiye will be expected to lead by example and ensure its positions are consistent with the ambition it asks of others,” Senlen said.

Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, said Türkiye’s moves “look like denial of climate science and of the need for action. This is the last thing the world needs from a COP host.”

Hare noted that Türkiye’s national climate plan is considered “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker – its lowest ranking which is shared by just a handful of countries.

“Instead of messing with the science, Türkiye 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,” he told Climate Home News.

The Turkish government did not respond to a request for comment.

Push to weaken UNEA resolutions

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.

This time around, Saudi Arabia – often joined by Russia, Iran and Türkiye – tried to water down several texts, according to annotated drafts seen by Climate Home News. The US has not engaged, calling the UNEA “woke climate change theater”.

In a Fiji-sponsored resolution on coral reefs, Saudi Arabia proposed describing climate change and ocean acidification as “challenges” rather than “threats”.

The EU, for its part, wanted a reference in this resolution to “escalating challenges related to the climate crisis”, but Türkiye and Saudi Arabia suggested “challenges relating to the climate”.

Glacier science downplayed

In a Tajikistan-sponsored motion on preserving glaciers and the wider cryosphere, Türkiye opposed saying that “greater emphasis should be placed” on enhancing scientific work and forecasting of changes, with this information integrated into decision-making. Türkiye proposed just “recognizing the importance” of this work while Saudi Arabia objected to the whole reference to it.

Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran sought to delete all or part of a sentence recognising that accelerated retreat and melting of the cryosphere – which includes glaciers – is caused by climate change.

Saudi Arabia also tried to weaken a reference to the UN’s goal to get everyone on Earth covered by early warning systems for climate disasters by 2027, changing “reaffirming” that goal to simply “recalling” it.

In several resolutions, Türkiye sought to remove or narrow references to Indigenous Peoples. Tajikistan proposed calling their role “crucial” and their knowledge “vital”. Türkiye wanted both adjectives deleted, and in another case suggested inserting “where applicable”.

Türkiye and Saudi Arabia attempted to downplay the role of young people too. The title of a Sri Lankan motion proposed enhancing their “meaningful participation” in “environmental governance”. Türkiye proposed changing “participation” to “involvement” and Saudi Arabia wanted to replace “governance” with “events”.

No approval for policy summary of key report

As UNEA opened on Monday, UN officials urged government delegates to show flexibility. UN Environment Programme head Inger Andersen said the world is in turbulent geopolitical waters, which adds “stresses and strains to the multilateral processes” and called on nations to step down “from the ramparts of individual positions to meet on common ground”.

But governments have already proven unable to approve a “summary for policymakers” of the UN’s seventh Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) report, which outlines the financial costs of environmental degradation and the benefits of making the economy more environmentally-friendly.

In response to a question by Climate Home News, report co-chair and scientist Robert Watson said at a press conference ahead of its release that governments had been divided on issues around fossil fuels, plastics, a circular economy and conflict.

He told the BBC that a small number of countries – including the US, which disagreed with much of the content – “basically just hijacked the process” at an October meeting, meaning the document could not be approved as it requires consensus.

Instead of the expected summary for policy-makers, the authors produced an executive summary – which doesn’t require a green light from governments at the UNEA. Watson said it is still “a very good synthesis of what the larger [GEO-7] report says”.

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