COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum defended in Nadi, Fiji, that wealthy nations must invest significantly more in combating climate change than the 5% of gross domestic product projected for defence within Nato. Kurum, who serves as Turkey’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, warned that ecological breakdown represents the core security emergency facing the international community.
Speaking after ministerial sessions co-organized by Turkey and Australia ahead of the United Nations climate summit, Kurum addressed delegates and observers on Friday, October 9, 2026. The minister argued that national budgets among developed powers remain misaligned with ecological hazards. “The climate issue is the security issue itself,” Kurum said through an interpreter. “If you don’t spend one unit of money prior to the disasters, then you are left in a position where you have to spend 10 units of money after the disaster. It’s cheaper pre-disaster.”
Kurum also challenged the strategic utility of armaments in the face of irreversible land loss. “What does it mean to spend 5% for defense if you don’t have a country to live on? What does it mean to defend it?” he stated, contrasting military allocations with limited support for vulnerable populations.
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COP31 presidency avoids explicit commitment to fossil fuel phaseout
Despite his calls for higher climate spending from industrialized powers, Kurum refrained from backing an explicit renewal of language requiring the phaseout of fossil fuels at the COP31 summit. The main conference is scheduled to begin on Monday, November 9, 2026, in the Turkish city of Antalya. Kurum noted that the global economy is already undergoing a structural transition, arguing that rigid terminology risks alienating major hydrocarbon exporters such as Saudi Arabia.
The commitment to transition away from fossil fuels was established internationally in 2023 during the COP28 negotiations in Dubai, but enforcement mechanisms remain contentious. Environmental advocates attending the Fiji talks rejected indirect substitutes for binding reduction schedules. Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, emphasized that climate diplomacy requires immediate caps on extraction. “This means no new projects. You can’t phase something out by building more of it,” Berman said.
Pacific island nations press COP31 delegates on funding deficits
The preparatory summit in Nadi brought together approximately 4,000 attendees, including 13 national leaders and 30 government ministers, alongside representatives from China, Saudi Arabia, and international agencies. On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, a diplomatic delegation traveled to the low-lying island country of Tuvalu, where land sits roughly two meters above sea level. Delegates inspected a 20-hectare coastal reclamation and containment infrastructure site designed to protect shorelines from rising ocean waters.
During the Tuvalu inspection, 13-year-old Melelusi Sokotia addressed the visiting officials as a spokesperson for local youth, questioning whether island children would be able to grow safely in their homeland to become teachers, builders, or doctors. The visit highlighted long-standing complaints from Pacific leaders regarding the distribution of adaptation grants.
Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, who serves as president of negotiations for COP31, pointed out that small island developing states receive only 0.2% of global climate adaptation funding. “That has got to change. It’s a key priority of Cop31,” Bowen stated, pledging to push for direct access mechanisms during the negotiations in Antalya.
Australia and Turkey set 35% global electricity target for 2035
Australia and Turkey are working to build consensus around an international target requiring 35% of total global energy use to come from electricity by 2035. At present, electricity accounts for 21% of the energy consumed across global transport, commercial operations, and manufacturing. Bowen argued that rather than attempting to curb fuel production directly, accelerating renewable electricity deployment offers the most practical route to replacing coal and gas generation assets.
The joint diplomatic initiative reflects a shared hosting arrangement concluded after both nations sought the COP31 presidency, resulting in Turkey hosting the formal summit in Antalya while Australia leads multilateral negotiations and regional Pacific events. The push comes amid findings from the United Nations Environment Programme indicating that global warming will reach at least 1.8°C under the most optimistic modeling, exceeding the 1.5°C threshold established under the Paris Agreement.
The preliminary summit in Nadi concluded on Thursday, October 8, 2026, with closing remarks from Fiji’s Minister for Information, Environment and Climate Change, Lynda Tabuya. “This pre-Cop draws to a close tonight. Our responsibility does not,” Tabuya said. Negotiating teams now turn to Antalya, where it remains unconfirmed whether the final conference draft will contain an explicit fossil fuel phaseout clause or rely on sectoral electrification targets.
