COP31: Your Guide to the 2026 UN Climate Conference

The next UN climate conference, COP31, will take place November 9 - 20, 2026, in Antalya, Türkiye.

This guide covers background info about climate COPs, including COP31.

COP, standing for the Conference of the Parties, is an annual high-level meeting organized by the United Nations, and the Climate COP is organized by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

Climate COPs are important because they bring together delegates from nearly every country on Earth to negotiate global goals for tackling climate change, present their individual countries’ plans for contributing to those goals and report on their progress.

The climate COP meets in a different country every year to demonstrate the importance of collaboration between the world’s nations. COP31 will take place in 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye. This follows COP30, which brought nearly 200 countries together to coordinate global climate action during November 2025 in Belém, Brazil.

COP30 closed in Belém, Brazil, on November 22, 2025, after a grueling final round of overnight negotiations. In The Nature Conservancy’s assessment, the summit delivered real progress, though not everything it set out to achieve.

The big news was the launch of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a fund designed to pay countries to keep forests standing. But there were quieter wins too: progress on how the world measures adaptation, stronger recognition of Indigenous Peoples and keeping the carbon market rules under Article 6 on track. Brazil’s COP president also promised to draw up roadmaps for ending deforestation and phasing out fossil fuels.

The biggest shortfall was fossil fuels. By the end of the second week, 88 countries had backed a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, and the idea appeared in early drafts, but it vanished from the final text after pushback from major fossil fuel producers. Language on reforming fossil fuel subsidies was also dropped.

It would have been stronger to see fossil fuels written into the final text instead of being handled through a separate COP Presidency process, but that process is at least a partial step forward on the core driver of climate change.

Between these items, and the continued gap in climate finance needed to address issues at scale, TNC will be attending the next Climate COP in order to continue advocating for progress and the implementation of solutions that we know work.

In response to the need for an economic blueprint to address the climate crisis, TNC created the Playbook for Climate Finance: a roadmap for unlocking the flow of finance to the solutions our planet urgently needs. It gathers a decade of breakthroughs into one guide and includes 10 bold approaches that prove we can tackle climate change, protect nature and strengthen communities at scale.

Here is what is in the cards for COP31 negotiations

Finance Roadmap: Finalizing the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to operationalize the US $1.3 trillion climate finance goal, including who pays, how it’s tracked and how private capital is mobilized.

Stronger NDCs: Pushing countries to submit enhanced 2035 climate plans aligned with the 1.5 °C target and linked to the Global Stocktake outcomes.

Adaptation Metrics: Agreeing on a workable set of Global Goal on Adaptation indicators and financing mechanisms that balance rigor with feasibility for developing nations.

Just Transition & Loss & Damage: Defining financing and equity frameworks that ensure fair transitions for workers and vulnerable countries and scale up loss & damage funding.

Implementation & Accountability: Shifting focus from pledges to delivery and oversight, strengthening reporting, institutional coordination and real-world project pipelines.

We have been advocating for a swifter transition to renewable energy sources, greater use of natural climate solutions and more investment from both the public and private sectors, especially to help those countries that have been most affected by the impacts of climate change.

We’re also working to ensure there is increased inclusivity and equity in climate policy processes since the leadership of under-represented groups, like Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), are essential to protecting cultural and biological diversity.

As a global society, we must:

1. Phase out fossil fuels. Accelerate the equitable transition away from fossil fuels to achieve net zero by 2050 or sooner and advance affordable, secure energy.
2. Deliver climate and nature finance at scale. Mobilize USD$7 trillion per year in public and private funding to drive outcomes for climate, nature and people.
3. Protect people and places on the climate frontline. Triple adaptation funding and improve accessibility to support communities hit hardest by climate change.

Every action matters. Every ounce of carbon, every fraction of a degree, every day matters. Our leaders’ climate actions matter, and your climate actions matter too.