COP31 Hosting arrangements continue to disappoint Pacific

It’s 3:12am on Friday here in Belém. But despite Friday being the advertised final day - and half the venue being packed down - I’m not staying awake for the Brazilian nightlife. We left the Blue Zone around 1am, having received information that negotiations had wrapped up for today and would recommence tomorrow morning at 10am. So for the small remaining crew of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus, we put our Closing Statement drafting on pause and decided to come back tomorrow.

Of course, soon after we left the venue, we heard that there were ongoing negotiations, with parties going through the Cover Decision / Global Mutirão text paragraph by paragraph. We also got even more troubling news about the status of the COP31 Presidency situation - which has gone from bad to worse.

Those of us from the Pacific region know how challenging it is to get to a COP - with the majority of conferences since the historic COP21 which birthed the Paris Agreement being held in European or Middle Eastern cities. COP23 was held in Bonn, Germany (the UNFCCC headquarters) under a Fijian Presidency but we haven’t had a COP take place in the Pacific region or anywhere remotely close - meaning that our people consistently have a higher barrier and cost to participation than many other attendees, despite being some of the worst hit when it comes to climate change, and having a very dry funding pool.

This compounds challenges with accessibility, equity, regional representation, capacity, and ensuring robust decision-making.

In a conference where there are dozens of meetings happening in parallel, it’s impossible to keep up with the negotiations unless you have many delegates, often multiple in each meeting room. When Pacific delegations routinely have only a few compared to larger countries’ tens or even hundreds-strong groups, it’s easy to see how Pacific realities and demands get overlooked. After all, if you’re not in the room, your voice doesn’t count. Pacific state parties are also often unable to stay for the duration of the COP when it runs overtime - with the extortionate pricing for accommodation and even food making every additional day a serious financial commitment.

Now imagine the situation for not only Pacific state parties, but for wider civil society and for Indigenous Peoples.

So today hearing that not only will COP31 not be held in Australia, but that Türkiye will also be the COP President is a large blow to those of us in the region. Australia is still slated to have a key role driving the negotiations, and the countries are planning to share decision-making, ensuring they are in alignment.

This sounds like a group project that is set up to fail, and the implications will be serious for the world, but especially for our end of it.

I’m struggling to see how Australia is going to make this up to the rest of the Pacific, and ensure that we have strong representation particularly of Pacific Indigenous Peoples, when it seems they haven’t even been able to hang on to the Presidency as a whole since ceding the physical hosting of COP31 to Ankara.

Regardless, there is no amount of money they can throw at the situation that will come near to the positive impact that a COP physically located in our region would have had for our communities.

We’re going to have to start our fundraising early this year it seems.