From 9 to 20 November, governments, scientists, activists, corporate lobbyists, diplomats, Indigenous Peoples and communities affected by climate change will gather in Antalya, T\u00fcrkiye, for COP31, the annual UN climate conference.<\/p>\n
COP31 comes after a year in which the climate crisis has become even harder to ignore. In September 2026, the United Nations acknowledged for the first time that the world is set to overshoot its target of limiting global warming to 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels within the next few years. The warning came as global temperatures continued to soar with the last two months setting global heat records<\/a>.<\/p>\n The science is undeniable; the legal obligations irrefutable; and the human rights stakes unfathomable. Human activities, particularly the extraction and burning of coal, oil and gas, are heating the planet and intensifying threats to human rights. Governments cannot portray climate inaction as a neutral position. Climate inaction, and worse, governmental provision of tax, political, and regulatory support to the fossil fuel industry, are deliberate choices made in the face of overwhelming evidence, with devastating consequences for people and their rights. By acting together and placing justice at the centre of climate action, governments can still limit further harm and build a fairer future.<\/p>\n COP stands for Conference of the Parties. It is the main decision-making forum of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, the international treaty agreed in 1992 and the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n COP meetings bring almost every country together to negotiate collective action, based on historical responsibility and capacity, on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to climate change and supporting countries and communities experiencing loss and damage.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s unusual leadership arrangement gives both T\u00fcrkiye and Australia significant responsibility as co-hosts. T\u00fcrkiye will host COP31 and Australia will lead the official negotiations.\u00a0 Both countries must demonstrate credible climate leadership and not hide behind each other to deflect attention from their lack of action. T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s continuing reliance on coal and pursuit of fossil gas risk locking it into a high-emissions pathway. Australia must confront the contradiction between leading global climate negotiations and continuing to support fossil fuel extraction and use.<\/p>\n Official pre-COP meetings and leaders\u2019 events already took place in Fiji and Tuvalu from 5 to 8 October, bringing Pacific leadership and priorities into the run up to the main summit. Amnesty International has documented how climate change is already harming human rights in Tuvalu, Kiribati and other Pacific Island countries<\/a>. In Tuvalu, Kiribati and across the region, rising seas, extreme heat, drought and saltwater intrusion threaten people\u2019s rights to water, food, health, housing, culture and a safe future.<\/p>\n Students from the Pacific<\/a> took the fight against climate change to the world\u2019s top court, leading the International Court of Justice to issue a landmark Advisory Opinion<\/a> in July 2025, which made it clear that governments have a legal obligation to protect human rights from climate change impacts.<\/p>\n After more than 30 years of climate negotiations, governments can no longer hide behind promises of future action. The science is settled, the solutions are available and the resources exist. Continued delay is a political choice, one that protects fossil fuel interests while Pacific communities lose land, livelihoods, rights and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n As President of Negotiations, Australia must ensure that Pacific demands become concrete COP31 outcomes. It cannot credibly claim climate leadership abroad while expanding fossil fuel projects at home that deepen the harms to Indigenous People, Pacific neighbours and other frontline communities. \u00a0Australia must end this contradiction by ending fossil fuel expansion, accelerating a just transition and securing far greater support for communities facing irreversible loss and damage.<\/p>\n Every COP matters, but the window for preventing escalating and irreversible harm is closing rapidly. In October 2026, the UN Environment Programme warned that the world needs to cut carbon emissions by nearly a fifth<\/a> in the next four years, and by close to half within a decade, to avoid overshooting climate targets by a disastrous margin. The higher and longer the overshoot, the greater the danger to people, ecosystems and economies. The harm caused cannot be undone.<\/p>\n Overshooting 1.5\u00b0C cannot become an excuse for resignation. Every fraction of a degree matters to human and planetary life. Governments must cut emissions urgently through a just and equitable phase out of fossil fuels, protect affected communities and prevent warming from reaching even more dangerous levels.<\/p>\n Yet many major economies continue to approve new fossil fuel production and prolong dependence on coal, oil and gas, including through subsidies, tax breaks, and other support. In many contexts, the fossil fuel industry is a powerful actor, shaping politics and legislation domestically and overseas. Meanwhile, climate science is being undermined and the social solidarity needed to drive action is being deliberately fractured by authoritarian state and corporate forces.<\/a> The result is a vicious cycle of disinformation, regulatory sabotage, coercive diplomacy and fossil fuel lock-in. It lays bare a widening gap between what science tells us is necessary and what human rights law obligates governments to do one hand, and what governments are willing to do on the other hand.<\/p>\n Discover how the world\u2019s slide into authoritarian practices is accelerating the climate crisis in this op-ed:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Everyone has the right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment<\/a>. Climate change also threatens the rights to life, food, water, health, housing, culture and an adequate standard of living.<\/p>\n In 2026, unprecedented climate-related disasters worldwide and itshuman consequences were visible across the world:<\/p>\n The human cost of climate breakdown is impossible to ignore any longer.<\/p>\n We know that humans\u2019 burning of fossil fuels is the main source of greenhouse gases that become concentrated in our atmosphere. These gases trap the sun\u2019s heat, leading to a long-term rise in the planet\u2019s average temperature and causing shifts in weather patterns as well as rising sea levels that will wipe out small island states<\/a> and much low-lying coastal land.<\/p>\n Therefore, to protect human rights now and in the future, and prevent even greater harm, governments must deliver a full, fast, fair and funded phase-out of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n There are many alternatives to fossil fuels<\/a>, like wind and solar power, that will enable us to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. The global push towards electrification using renewable energy is essential, but the transition must respect human rights and not reproduce the abuses and inequalities of the fossil fuel economy.<\/p>\n Amnesty International is calling on governments to advance three priorities:<\/p>\n Justice demands that those most responsible for heating the planet, and those with the greatest capacity to act, do and pay their fair share.<\/p>\n Read more on how the climate crisis cannot be solved behind closed doors in this joint op-ed from Directors for Amnesty International in Brazil, T\u00fcrkiye and Australia:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n In September, the Turkish authorities launched a nationwide operation targeting LGBTI+<\/a> organizations, activists and human rights defenders. Homes, venues and offices were raided, more than 100 people were detained, dozens of whom were subsequently remanded in pretrial detention and over 1000 social media accounts belonging to activists, journalists and human rights organisations were blocked or restricted, including that of Amnesty International T\u00fcrkiye. In October, in another serious escalation, authorities raided and seized control of a major opposition television channel<\/a> in a significant blow to press freedom.<\/p>\n This is not an isolated attack or one confined to a single community. It is part of a sustained crackdown with arbitrary restrictions on peaceful assembly, association and expression over the last decade. Environmental defenders, journalists, women\u2019s rights activists, political opponents and LGBTI+ communities may be targeted in different ways, but the effect is the same: dissent is silenced, divisions are stoked, and fear spreads \u2013 making it harder for people to hold their government accountable for climate action or any other human rights issue.<\/p>\n For the vital negotiations about protecting our shared future to be effective and equitable at COP31, T\u00fcrkiye must end its crackdown on human rights and those who defend them.<\/p>\n UN climate conferences remain among the few global spaces where almost all states come together alongside Indigenous Peoples, civil society representatives in all their diversity and communities campaigning for climate justice. Fossil fuel lobbyists will be there too \u2013 as they are in almost all forums where climate change is discussed. Protecting civic space at COP is essential to overcoming fossil fuel obstruction and securing effective climate action. As it is, the scales are tipped in favour of industry. Any erosion in protections for civil society at COP will tip the scales further.<\/p>\n Around the world, governments and corporations have criminalised protest and subjected environmental human rights defenders to intimidation, surveillance, detention and violence. Authoritarian attacks on environmental human rights defenders<\/a>, women, LGBTI+ people and other marginalised communities are not separate political projects. They divide societies, weaken collective action and protect entrenched power while fossil fuel production continues.<\/p>\nWhat is a COP meeting?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Pre-COP31 spotlight on the Pacific<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Why is COP31 so important?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
How is climate change affecting human rights?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Why must fossil fuels be phased out?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What must governments agree at COP31?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Spotlight on T\u00fcrkiye<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Why is protecting civic space important for a UN summit like COP?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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