SYDNEY/BELEM (Reuters) -Australia will not oppose a successful Turkish bid to host next year’s COP31 climate summit, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, warning a prolonged standoff over hosting rights could undermine unity required to help the Pacific island nations.
Australia and Turkey submitted bids in 2022 to host COP31 and neither has withdrawn. Albanese earlier this week ruled out a joint hosting arrangement, saying UN rules do not permit co-hosts for the annual summit.
But on Tuesday he said there was “considerable concern” from countries, including Pacific nations, that a failure to reach consensus could jeopardise efforts to push for a united diplomatic front to act on climate.
“If Australia is not chosen, if Turkey is chosen, we wouldn’t seek to veto that. What we would seek to do is to ensure that the Pacific benefited from that,” Albanese told reporters.
“What we’re doing is continuing to engage … not just with Turkey, but other countries as well to make sure that the interests of the Pacific are looked after.”
A government spokesperson said Australia had not dropped its bid and expected Turkey to not block Australia if it won.
“If Turkey were chosen, we wouldn’t block their bid. But Turkey hasn’t been chosen. Australia has the overwhelming support of our peers,” the spokesperson said.
Australia has campaigned to host COP31 alongside Pacific island nations for the first time, backed by the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum. Many Pacific states are on the front lines of rising sea levels and have pushed for more global efforts on climate finance and emission cuts.
Under U.N. rules, the 28-member “Western Europe and Others Group” bloc, whose turn it is to host COP31 and which includes Australia and Turkey, must unanimously decide. Consensus must be reached at COP30, currently underway in Belem, Brazil, and scheduled to end on Friday.
If neither Australia nor Turkey backs down, the conference would default to Bonn in Germany – home to the U.N. climate headquarters – though Germany has said it does not want to take on hosting duties.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney and Kate Abnett in Belem; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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