COP31 in Antalya: Not a suitable stage for climate protection

Every time I see the fancy illustrations that decorate Turkey as the host country of this year's World Climate Conference (COP), I think of Esra Işık. The Turkish climate activist took part in protests against the expansion of a coal mine in Muğla province and as a result clashed with the Turkish government.

The right-wing government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not like the resistance on the land and around the Akbelen Forest in southwest Turkey. After all, they had used specially accelerated expropriation procedures in order to expand the site to include the Yeniköy-Kemerköy coal-fired power plant as quickly as possible.

Climate activists like Esra Işık, who peacefully opposed environmental destruction and fossil fuel expansion, were in the way. And while Esra Işık is now facing several years in prison for her protest, Turkey, as host of the World Climate Summit, is becoming the stage to talk about the danger of the climate crisis. More importantly, Turkey takes over the presidency of the summit and sets the agenda in advance.

Politicians and experts from all over the world are meeting for the 31st UN Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Turkey. From November 9th to 20th, representatives from around 200 countries will discuss the fight against global warming. The taz has a team on site. Follow our reporting on our focus on taz.de, on klima.taz on Instagram, in the podcast klima update°, in the newsletter TEAM ZUKUNFT, in the weekday e-paper and in the weekly taz.

How absurd it is that a conference that decides on no less than a few of the most fundamental justice issues of our time is taking place in a country where the population is not free. According to Amnesty International, activists, left-wing politicians and opposition figures in Turkey are extremely affected by unjustified criminal prosecution. With some convictions, the courts even ignored binding decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.

Many of the world climate conferences usually attract protests. And when you look at how reluctant the international community is to adopt measures for serious climate justice at these conferences, it becomes clear why the pressure of the protests is urgently needed. But how can one protest in a country where people are not allowed to freely assemble?

The taz is an independent, left-wing and opinionated daily newspaper. We have been arguing in our comments, essays and debate texts since the taz was founded in 1979. We often cannot and do not want to agree on an opinion. That's why you'll find some completely opposing positions here - all part of the very broad left-wing spectrum of opinions.

The climate crisis is a justice crisis at every turn. Simply because those responsible are not the victims of the climate crisis. In order to compensate for this historical injustice, the negotiators at the 29th Climate Conference in 2024 in the Azerbaijani capital Baku agreed that the industrialized countries should pay an annual sum to developing and emerging countries. However, this sum falls far short of what would actually be necessary.

Every year at the conferences, a small alliance of states, including small island states that ambitiously demand concrete measures to phase out fossil fuels, meet oil heavyweights. However, they cannot be dissuaded from their fossil agenda, even though people in Papua New Guinea have been forced to leave their homes since 2005 due to rising sea levels.

With every passing year that we continue to rely on fossil fuels, the costs of the consequences of climate change increase. But the amount available to the countries of the Global South will not be increased. Negotiating these fundamental injustices in Turkey, a country with such a problematic human rights record, is cynical.

It remains difficult to imagine that this environment could be in any way conducive to the painful and sensitive issues that are on the table. What Turkey doesn't have, besides a free population, is a free press. Turkey ranks 163rd out of 180 in this year's press freedom rankings by Reporters Without Borders.

And the international press has been streaming into this very country without press freedom since last weekend. It is therefore all the more important that journalists do not allow themselves to be blinded by the chic, glossy facade in Antalya, but instead report critically. Because the Turkish government is not a suitable stage for a climate conference. I will also travel to Antalya at the end of the week and try exactly that. Hopefully they'll let me in.