Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to meet his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly gathering on Thursday (AEST) to hopefully resolve an impasse over the hosting rights for the talks.
Mr Albanese wants to host next year's COP31 event in conjunction with Pacific nations, which are bearing the brunt of rising sea levels and more frequent storms as global temperatures rise.
UN processes dictate that a country from the "Western European and Other States" group, which includes Australia, will host the 2026 event.
The decision on hosting rights is made by consensus only, and Turkey, from the same grouping, is refusing to drop its bid to run the climate conference.Â
It makes promised "discussions" with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a top-order priority on Mr Albanese's last full day in the US, and likely last chance to make a pitch in person.
Mr Albanese has claimed Australia would win overwhelmingly if the matter was put to a vote, but wouldn't be drawn on negotiations.
"We don't know, that's the truth," he said when asked if the matter would be resolved by the end of the week.
Pacific nations are eager for Australia to land the conference, which is pencilled in for Adelaide in November 2026, as demonstrated by the unanimous endorsement by Pacific leaders at this month's Pacific Islands Forum summit.
"We want to host COP31," Palau President and incoming PIF chair Surangel Whipps Jr told reporters in Solomon Islands.
"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."
Former Australian climate negotiator Richie Merzian said Mr Albanese may need to offer Turkey additional sweeteners to secure the hosting rights.
"When it comes to these types of negotiations, it is really a horse-trading exercise," he told AAP.
"We could potentially support Turkish interests to secure other UN hosting rights or UN roles, we could push on behalf of Turkey for access to particular global funds on climate change."
Now the head of a major investment group focused on clean energy, Mr Merzian said negotiations on the 2026 climate conference would likely go down to the wire, and may not be decided until the end of this year's COP in November.
He pointed to the 2024 gathering, where the host was only decided in the final days of the previous year's conference.
"It literally took a shared press release that included a prisoner swap between two countries (Armenia and Azerbajan), in order to get the deal across," Mr Merzian said.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said hosting the climate talks was important for Australia and warned the prime minister would have failed if he returned home without securing hosting rights.
20°C