Stockholm University researchers attend COP31

Several issues have been singled out as especially important ahead of the summit, chiefly climate adaptation, climate finance and the transition away from fossil fuels.

Turkey is also pursuing a parallel action agenda. It covers areas such as the circular economy and waste, industrial emissions cuts, food security and climate adaptation in cities.

A leaders’ summit is planned for 11–12 November.

What could the summit deliver?

Expectations of a major breakthrough at COP31 are modest. At COP30, countries failed to agree on a roadmap for moving away from fossil fuels. Chris Bowen has himself said the negotiations “won’t be easy”.

In this article, researchers Adrienne Sörbom and Karin Bäckstrand, both experts in international climate policy, take stock of the outlook going into COP31:

COP31: Why it’s important to see the glass half full in the climate gloom

There are also concrete initiatives that could come out of Antalya. Australia, for example, is working with the Pacific island countries on a declaration on how the most vulnerable countries can gain access to climate finance.

New research on the agenda

Stockholm University has several researchers and experts on site at COP31.

Lan Wang Erlandsson, who represents Bolin Centre for Climate Research and Stockholm Resilience Centre, will present new research on the cryosphere, the planet’s frozen regions, on 13 November. (The scientific paper will be published in Science on 12 November.)

On this page, we’ve gathered all the Stockholm University experts and researchers attending in Turkey, as well as those available to comment on the summit from home:

COP31 UN Climate Change Conference 2026 – experts at Stockholm University