The opening ceremony of COP31 is being held in Antalya, Türkiye.
“Operative Information Center-OMM” reports that COP31 President and Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum announced the ceremony in a post on his social media account on X.
At the ceremony, COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago, Brazil’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment, handed the symbolic COP presidency gavel to Murat Kurum, COP31 President and Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change.
Türkiye is presiding over COP31, while Australia has taken on the role of “President of Negotiations,” overseeing the formal climate talks. This dual leadership model, introduced for the first time in the history of UN climate summits, resulted from a diplomatic agreement reached between the two countries during COP30 in Brazil.
Nearly 100,000 foreign guests and 1.5 million visitors are expected to attend the event. Azerbaijan is represented at COP31 by a large delegation, and the country’s experience hosting COP29 is also being widely applied at the international event.
