Leaders and negotiators gather in Antalya, Turkey, on Monday 9 November for COP31, the UN climate summit, with the United States sending no official delegation and the Paris Agreement's 1.5C goal now out of reach, the UN Environment Programme says.

The summit runs until 20 November at the Antalya Expo Center, marking the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement entering into force. It is the first COP under a shared presidency: Turkey's Murat Kurum is COP31 president, while Australia's Chris Bowen leads the formal negotiations. A World Leaders' Summit follows on 11 and 12 November.

The United States, the world's second-largest emitter, formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement at the start of this year and will send no official delegation, although members of Congress and US businesses will attend. It is not the first COP without US participation, but the absence comes at a consequential moment for the process.

An 'implementation COP'

Kurum has billed it as an implementation COP, focused on turning existing commitments into action rather than negotiating new headline pledges. The presidency's voluntary 35-by-35 pledge aims to raise electricity's share of energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035, up from about 23 percent today.

Finance is likely to be the most contentious issue. Developing nations will press rich countries to deliver on the COP29 goal of mobilising at least $300 billion a year by 2035, and the COP30 call to at least triple adaptation finance. Developed countries provided a record $136.7 billion in 2024, according to the OECD.

Under current policies, temperatures are expected to rise by around 2.8C by the end of the century, or around 2.6C if the latest commitments are fully implemented, the Council on Foreign Relations notes. August 2026 joined July 2023 as the hottest month on record globally.