\n<\/p>\n
The Albanese government is privately downplaying expectations of winning the bid to host next year\u2019s UN climate conference as rival Turkey refuses to withdraw two months out from the decision date.<\/p>\n
The government has ruled out using taxpayer funds to effectively buy off the Turkish bid but experts believe it will need to make other offers if it wants to break the impasse.<\/p>\n
Anthony Albanese plans to meet the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York this month with the hope of convincing him to withdraw his Cop31 bid \u2013 clearing the way for Australia to stage the global climate talks in partnership with Pacific Island nations.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Pacific leaders issued a fresh call for Turkey to step aside as an \u201cact of good faith\u201d after this week\u2019s Pacific Islands forum in Solomon Islands, which Albanese attended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clear message from Pacific leaders is that we want to host Cop31, we deserve to host Cop31, and given the breadth and depth of support, it would be seen as an act of good faith if others would clear the way,\u201d the president of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coming weeks are make or break, which is why we agreed to work very closely with prime minister Albanese, including in New York in 10 days\u2019 time. We don\u2019t want to let this major international opportunity slip us by.\u201d<\/p>\n
Choosing a Cop host requires consensus of the members of the group of nations whose turn it is to stage the event, which draws together world leaders, diplomats, NGOs and industry lobbyists for a fortnight of climate negotiations.<\/p>\n
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Government sources said Australia has the backing of as many as 25 of the 29 countries in its Western European and Others group, which includes Turkey.<\/p>\n
But even though Australia has overwhelming support, unless the rival bidder withdraws the hosting rights would automatically revert to Bonn, Germany, under Cop conventions.<\/p>\n
The deadlock must be resolved before Cop30 in Bel\u00e9m, Brazil, wraps up in late November.<\/p>\n
Senior government sources, who spoke to Guardian Australia on the condition of anonymity, believe the prospect of Australia missing out is a genuine possibility amid dwindling hopes that Turkey will relent, even though it does not have the international support to win in its own right.<\/p>\n
They confirmed that one of the main reasons Turkey was fighting so hard was Erdo\u011fan\u2019s wife, Emine Erdo\u011fan, who is an outspoken environmentalist.<\/p>\n
Turkey is adamant its time has come to host the annual event after withdrawing from the race to host Cop26, which ultimately went to Glasgow.<\/p>\n
Albanese pointed to that second factor this week as he conceded it would be an \u201cunfortunate outcome\u201d if Australia\u2019s bid was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
The federal government has been privately arguing that Turkey withdrawing this time was different to the Cop26 race because rather than clearing the path for a large western nation \u2013 in that case the UK \u2013 it would be giving a global platform to Pacific nations on the frontline of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
If the bid fails, the federal government will move to quickly reassure Pacific nations about its ongoing commitment to climate action, including with the 2035 emissions reduction target it plans to unveil next week before Albanese travels to New York.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n As the late-November deadline looms with no apparent progress on a resolution, experienced climate negotiators anticipate the federal government will need to offer Turkey something to secure the bid.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Politico reported the then Boris Johnson-led UK government used a package of incentives to convince Turkey to pull out of the Cop26 bidding contest, including promising to back its candidates vying for roles on international and UN bodies and to speak with other countries about reclassifying Turkey under the UN convention so it could receive climate aid.<\/p>\n The UK also reportedly agreed to support Turkey\u2019s bid to host Cop31. The now Keir Starmer-led Labour government has since publicly backed Australia\u2019s bid.<\/p>\n Richie Merzian, a former Australian climate negotiator, said the Albanese government would need to \u201csweeten the deal\u201d to encourage Turkey to step aside.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unclear what the Turkish government actually want,\u201d Merzian, who is now the chief executive of the Clean Energy Investor Group, said. \u201cBut it could be supporting Turkey at other UN events and for other UN positions, support for Turkish aid projects or for trade deals that might not even involve Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n Government sources confirmed there would be no financial deal with Turkey but would not be drawn on other types of offers that might be put forward.<\/p>\n Guardian Australia understands the idea of splitting some of the preliminary Cop event between Turkey and the Pacific was floated at one stage as a possible compromise.<\/p>\n Merzian expected the deadlock would be broken at the Bel\u00e9m conference.<\/p>\n \u201cMuch like litigation, it will probably settle before it gets to the plenary floor (for a vote at Cop30). You need everyone to meet at Cop30, at Brazil, to nut this out.\u201d<\/p>\n The Turkish embassy in Canberra was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Albanese government is privately downplaying expectations of winning the bid to host next year\u2019s UN climate conference as rival Turkey refuses to withdraw two months out from the decision date. The government has ruled out using taxpayer funds to effectively buy off the Turkish bid but experts believe it will need to make other<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[2029,1532,12881,9126,2126,12882,5734,1118],"class_list":{"0":"post-21006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australias","9":"tag-bid","10":"tag-cop31","11":"tag-refuses","12":"tag-rival","13":"tag-teeters","14":"tag-turkey","15":"tag-withdraw"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}