Brazil's Lula to attend COP31 climate summit in Türkiye
Brazil's President Lula will attend COP31 in Antalya Nov 9-20; Türkiye presides and Australia leads, after last year's Amazon summit set no fossil phaseout deadlines and experts again see a deal as unlikely amid Middle East war pressures.
- World
- Anadolu Agency
- Published Date: 09:25 PM 31 October 2026
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 31), held November 9-20 in Antalya, Türkiye, a government source told AFP on Saturday.
The recently reelected leftist leader is a leading figure in global warming discussion.
Brazil hosted the previous summit last year in the heart of the Amazon.
Despite the symbolism of holding the talks in the world's largest tropical rainforest, delegations failed to set binding targets or deadlines for phasing out coal, oil and gas.
Experts say an agreement on that front is unlikely this year, with markets under intense pressure from the war in the Middle East.
Among its 10 "priority issues," Türkiye proposes reducing emissions by increasing electricity's share of global energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035. The current share is around 23 percent.
Türkiye will hold the presidency of this year's annual climate summit, while Australia will lead the negotiations. The meeting of heads of state is scheduled for November 11-12.
Lula, 81, won Sunday's presidential runoff against conservative Flavio Bolsonaro.
"It was a victory for the fight against climate change" over "climate change denial," Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, who will accompany the president to COP31, told AFP on Wednesday.