Construction and fit-out work at the venue for the COP31 UN climate conference in Antalya is 93% complete and should reach 98% by the end of October, a senior Turkish climate official said on Sunday, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
Prof. Dr. Halil Hasar, President of Climate Change at the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, gave the update on the sidelines of a sustainable development symposium in Antalya organised by TURKSAI, the organisation of supreme audit institutions of the Turkic states. He said final preparations were being made together with United Nations teams.
The 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change runs in Antalya from 9 to 20 November, with the city’s EXPO site, covering more than 40,000 square metres, as the venue.
Blue zone finished, green zone nearly ready
According to Hasar, the blue zone, the UN-run area where negotiations take place, is finished. Infrastructure and IT systems in the green zone, the part open to the public, businesses, civil society groups and finance representatives, are also ready, while country pavilions are getting their final touches. He said the EXPO grounds should be used for fairs and other events once the summit is over.
Hasar said 196 countries plus the European Union, 197 parties in total, will be represented. About 100 heads of state are expected and more than 85 have already confirmed. He put the number of ministers at 500 to 1,000 and said technical and delegation staff would total about 25,000, rising to around 30,000 with negotiators. Around 100,000 visitors a day are expected in the green zone.
Those figures are in line with the security plans announced earlier this week, when officials said 26,000 security personnel will be deployed for COP31. The province is also building a turtle-shaped pavilion for the conference.
Pressure on hotels in the off-season
Antalya has about 600,000 hotel beds, but Hasar said the summit was already making rooms harder to find. Delegations will arrive in the low season, and he expects the event to raise Antalya’s international profile and bring economic benefits in the years ahead. He added that COP host countries often see more international finance flowing in, and predicted faster investment in the green transition.
For residents, that means busier roads, fuller hotels and higher demand for short-term rentals while the summit is on. Anyone planning visitors or trips to the city in that period should book early. For context, see Antalya’s foreign visitor numbers for the first nine months.
’35 by 35′ electricity goal on the agenda
Separately, International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol told AA that COP31 would focus on a ’35 by 35′ initiative led by Türkiye and Australia. It aims to raise electricity’s share of total energy consumption from 23% today to 35% by 2035. If the target is adopted, the IEA would monitor and report each country’s progress every year. Birol said the main obstacle is not building power plants but the grids that carry electricity to homes and factories. That ties in with Türkiye’s own plans for $80 billion of grid investment by 2035.
For more on the city, see our guide to living in Antalya.
Sources
- Antalya’da COP31 etkinlik alanında çalışmalar yüzde 93 tamamlandı (AA via Haberler.com)
- COP31’de elektrikte ’35’te 35′ hedefine odaklanılacak (AA via Haberler.com)
Photo: Mikhail Blinov / Unsplash License, via Unsplash
