ANTALYA (The Thursday Times) — China has ruled out hosting the COP33 United Nations climate summit in 2028, reports said on Thursday and Friday, ending hopes among some delegates at COP31 in Antalya that the world’s largest emitter would take charge of one of the most important rounds of talks of the decade.
Asked about the reports on Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing had “no information at the moment”. She described the UN climate conference as “an important platform for global climate governance” and said China was committed to advancing the global green and low-carbon transition and international cooperation on climate.
Under the UN climate convention’s rotation, the 2028 summit must be held by a country in the Asia-Pacific region. Uzbekistan, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand are said to be weighing bids, according to the reports. India considered offering to host earlier this year but decided against it, they said.
A South Korean official was reported in April as saying that Seoul had not formally expressed interest, and as questioning whether the country could host the talks in the same year it runs the G20. Indonesian ministers are understood to have discussed a bid, and Jakarta asked at talks in Bonn in June about the timeline for choosing the host. No decision on the host is due at COP31.
A pivotal year
COP33 matters because it will conclude the second global stocktake, the Paris Agreement’s review of whether countries are on track to limit global warming to 1.5C. It is scheduled for 6 to 17 November 2028.
No reason has been given for China’s decision. Experts cited in the reports pointed to the US electoral calendar: the next US presidential election falls on 7 November 2028, in the middle of the summit, and President Donald Trump would remain in office until January 2029 whoever wins.
China has been building its profile on clean energy. Its renewable generating capacity now exceeds its coal capacity, and electric vehicles made up nearly two-thirds of car sales in the country last month, according to the reports.
COP31 enters its final stretch
The news came as negotiators in Antalya began work on the summit’s cover decision, with a wishlist issued on Friday that puts the move away from fossil fuels back at the centre of the talks. Britain, Norway, and Canada’s development finance institutions this week set a $10 billion climate finance target, and Iran’s president told the summit that his country wants compensation for environmental damage from US-Israeli strikes.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres earlier called for a near-zero methane benchmark, while the climate campaigner Greta Thunberg told delegates the planet was “being killed”.
