The United Nations climate conference is scheduled to open Monday in Antalya, Türkiye, with an opening plenary at 10 a.m. local time, according to the U.N. climate secretariat. The conference runs through Nov. 20 at the Antalya EXPO Center.
The opening and leaders’ summit are separate
Monday’s plenary opens the formal conference. A separate leaders’ summit is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 11 and 12. Türkiye invited heads of state and government to that gathering. An invitation and a scheduled session establish the program, while attendance and any commitments will become clear as the meetings take place.
How to follow the talks
The conference includes parallel meetings for countries participating in the U.N. climate convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, according to the official participant guide. The same opening brings those tracks together before their work proceeds separately. The secretariat says the opening can be followed by webcast and on the COP31 digital platform.
In an Associated Press interview ahead of the conference, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The conference calendar sets out when delegations meet. Any negotiated outcomes will depend on what they agree during the talks.