UN climate change summit puts Türkiye at center of international diplomacy: Communications director

Türkiye's communications director said Wednesday that world leaders had acknowledged and praised the substantial investment, extensive preparations and considerable efforts that went into organizing COP31, the UN's annual Climate Change Conference, hosted by Türkiye in the southern city of Antalya.

"With COP31, Türkiye has demonstrated to both the world and its region that it is at the center of diplomacy," Burhanettin Duran told a news conference.

Recalling that Türkiye had previously hosted NATO and Organization of Turkic States (OTS) summits, he said the country had once again demonstrated its position at the center of international diplomacy by hosting COP31.

Duran highlighted the summit's motto, "Dialogue, Consensus and Action," stressing that dialogue alone was insufficient to address environmental challenges. He said countries needed to reach a consensus and translate their decisions into concrete action.

He identified climate justice and the implementation of commitments as the two key issues at the summit.

Duran argued that developed countries, having caused significant environmental damage during their industrialization, bore greater responsibility for addressing climate change.

Rather than placing the burden on developing countries, he said, developed nations should share financial resources and technology to support environmental protection and climate action.

He noted that climate justice had been one of the central themes of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's address. He also emphasized the need to ensure that summit commitments were implemented.

"President Erdogan stressed that 'We will not just pretend to act. The decisions taken must be implemented. We will continue working on this,'" Duran said.