COP30 reporters' notebook: Day 11

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 We have a winner By Ayenat Mersie After months of wrangling between Australia and Turkey over who would host the 31st U.N. Climate Change Conference in 2026, Turkey has emerged as the winner. Turkey will host COP31 in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, Bloomberg reported. Unusually in terms of timing, the announcement comes after the revelation that COP32 would be hosted in Ethiopia. The COP31 news is not much of a surprise after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — who is not at the COP30 in Brazil — told a press conference on Tuesday that Australia would not block anything if Turkey emerged as the winner. But he also said that he would campaign for some sort of leaders' summit associated with COP to be held in the Pacific. Australia had been campaigning to host COP for years, and its success would have been seen as a win for the Pacific region more broadly. “We acknowledge all the work that Pacific leaders did to try and bring COP to the Pacific, a region on the extreme frontlines of the climate crisis,” Suluafi Brianna Fruean, a Pacific council elder at 350.org, said in a statement. “With Australia hopefully still holding some role of leadership in the COP31 negotiations, we remain adamant that they rise to the occasion.” Germany had been scrambling behind the scenes to help resolve the dispute between Australia and Turkey, given that if it wasn’t smoothed over, the meeting would have to be held in Bonn by default. Burkina Faso’s princess says less talk, more walk By Jesse Chase-Lubitz Burkina Faso wants to see countries maintain sovereignty over their natural resources, especially critical minerals, Princess Abze Djigma of Burkina Faso told Devex in an interview. “Every country is sovereign, and what is under the ground of your country, you have the ownership and you need to enjoy it,” she said, praising her government for overhauling its mining laws to ensure that “we lead by example.” Burkina Faso is currently ruled under a transitional military regime led by Ibrahim Traoré following a 2022 coup. The royals in Burkina Faso are primarily symbolic and cultural, and they sometimes act as mediators in local disputes — but they have no formal political power. She pointed repeatedly to Burkina Faso’s domestic reforms — from university-led research and development to new health and sanitation investments — arguing they demonstrate what locally driven development can look like. And as geopolitical dynamics shift, she highlighted a growing emphasis on south–south cooperation and partnerships focused on results. The princess helped launch a “high-level Mutirão-Burkindi coalition on capacity-building,” which sets out to “leverage diaspora experience and networks, local experts, African-descendant experts and leaders, and the networks of African Royal Houses for SDGs to work towards resource mobilization and capacity building. As for the COP30 negotiations, Djima wants to see action, rather than discussions. “We are not in the complaining mode,” she told me when asked about climate finance and adaptation goals. “We’re not here to renegotiate. There is no reason to hold up the negotiations. We have a task and a mission. People back home are waiting on us.” An ambitious compromise? By Ayenat Mersie United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was in Belém on Thursday, and he had a clear message for U.S. President Donald Trump: “We are waiting for you.” Trump, of course, did not send a delegation to COP30, and the U.S. departure from the Paris climate agreement is set to take effect in January. Asked whether he could imagine the Trump administration engaging productively in this process, Guterres answered with a smile, “Hope is the last thing that dies.” Some other things that Guterres said he was hopeful about? A just energy transition, the tripling of climate finance for adaptation, and that COP30 negotiators would reach an “ambitious compromise.” “For millions, adaptation is not an abstract goal. It is the difference between rebuilding and being swept away, between replanting and starving, between staying on ancestral land or losing it forever,” he said. He also talked about the need for a just transition, including through measures such as ending market distortions that favor fossil fuels and ensuring clean power can meet future electricity demand. That is why, he said, “I have been calling for a new global coalition on green storage and electrification, so green energy reaches everyone, everywhere, and becomes a default choice.” He offered no further details on when this coalition may become, but it’s something to watch. Financing surfaced repeatedly. He said the cost of capital must fall sharply through concessional tools, debt guarantees, and other innovative instruments. Public budgets may be limited, he noted, but the global financial system can unlock and multiply resources for far greater impact. And he emphasized that multilateral development banks must play a “decisive” role. As he put it, “They need to be bigger, better, and bolder, allowing them to massively increase their lending capacity and leverage private finance at speed and scale.” Guterres said he was on his way to the G20 summit in South Africa, where many conversations are expected to be about these very issues, so stay tuned for our coverage of that conference. Stop, COP, and roll By Ayenat Mersie A fire broke out in the COP30 Blue Zone on Thursday afternoon. No, this isn’t some sort of euphemism for a fight or to talk about the way our planet is heating up — it was a literal fire. And I’m writing this cross-legged on the ground outside after being evacuated. Videos by attendees showed flames and smoke ripping through the convention tent’s ceiling and dozens of awestruck attendees taking out their phones to record the chaos before agitated security guards shooed them out. Brazil’s tourism minister said there were no casualties. And we were told quite quickly that the fire was under control. It’s not clear exactly where the fire originated, but it looks like it was somewhere near the Africa pavilion. Some folks had apparently tried to rush back to their pavilions, where they had stored passports and official documents; other evacuees lamented the fact that they were stuck here because their Airbnb keys were stuck inside the venue. I was in the cool, quiet calm of the VIP room when it struck out. I was having a quick one-on-one with Sierra Leone's Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jiwoh Abdulai, when a worker told us very firmly to leave urgently. We walked outside to the 86-degree Fahrenheit heat, dodging stray raindrops as we wrapped up our conversation. Outside, I saw him speak briefly to Brazil’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva. I also spotted Selwin Hart, U.N. special adviser to the secretary-general on climate action and just transition, leaning against a column deep in conversation with another attendee. Wandering around our evacuation zone, I overheard people saying they were worried about what this could mean for negotiations, which are supposed to end tomorrow. Mohamed Adow, director of think tank Power Shift Africa, said: "I regret the fire incident at COP30 and the fright it caused. No one comes to a global climate summit expecting sirens and smoke, yet here we are. What could have spiralled into a disaster was contained in minutes thanks to the swift, disciplined work of the security teams and marshals on site. They moved fast, kept people calm, and restored order before rumours could outrun the truth. They deserve full credit. "Even in a moment of chaos, one thing stood out: people from every corner of the world, different nations, creeds, and affiliations, looked out for one another. Delegates helped strangers, staff guided crowds, and no one stopped to ask who belonged to which bloc before stepping in. When faced with a crisis, cooperation wasn’t a slogan, but a human instinct in its rawest, truest form. "That spirit is precisely what climate action demands. The climate crisis doesn’t care for our borders or diplomatic dramas. It requires the same urgency, solidarity, and shared purpose we saw today, minus the flames, ideally. If we can respond to the planet’s emergencies with the same unity shown in that tense moment, COP30 might yet be remembered not for an incident, but for a turning point."