As the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP31,[1] approaches in Antalya, attention is turning to how existing climate commitments can be translated into implementation, finance and investment, including efforts to accelerate the energy transition, strengthen resilience and support long-term emissions reductions. Türkiye will host COP31 and lead its Action Agenda, focused on practical implementation initiatives and partnerships alongside the formal negotiations, while Australia will lead the negotiations. For banks, insurers and investors, the outcomes could affect areas including electrification, adaptation and resilience, climate finance, and the just transition.

The financial sector is also closely watching how countries translate updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) (with 147 Parties having submitted updated NDCs under the Paris Agreement by mid-2026), National Adaptation Plans and long-term net-zero strategies into domestic policies, regulatory frameworks and investment priorities. For financial institutions, a key question is how decisions emerging from international negotiations, including those from COP31, are subsequently reflected in national climate plans, policies, regulations, supervisory expectations and market conditions. Tracking this transmission from international commitments to domestic policy can help financial institutions anticipate changes in the policy and regulatory environment, as well as emerging risks, opportunities and financing needs.

This article looks ahead to the Presidencies’ priorities and key moments expected to shape the road to COP31 and their implications for financial institutions. It also discusses UNEP FI’s activities and initiatives at the COP.

The priorities expected to shape COP31

Key priorities for the Australia Presidency-led negotiations include scaling adaptation action and finance, advancing work on loss and damage, strengthening access to climate finance and aligning investment flows with climate goals, including implementation of the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance adopted at COP29, which aims to support developing countries’ climate action, and Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement, which requires aligning all global financial flows—public and private, domestic and international—with low-emissions, climate-resilient development.

The Presidency will also seek to advance the Global Goal on Adaptation and the Just Transition Mechanism; strengthen transparency and accountability through NDCs, NAPs and Biennial Transparency Reports; and ensure that existing workstreams support the accelerated implementation needed to keep 1.5°C within reach.

Complementing this work, the Belém Mission to 1.5, stewarded jointly by the COP29, COP30 and COP31 Presidencies, is identifying high-impact opportunities, barriers and solutions to accelerate the implementation of NDCs and NAPs, strengthen international cooperation and mobilize investment.

Alongside the negotiations, Türkiye’s Presidency-led Action Agenda provides a complementary implementation track focused on concrete targets, partnerships and investment across areas including clean energy, circularity, resilient cities, food systems and green industrialization. Several priorities have been translated into measurable 2035 ambitions: increasing electricity’s share of final energy demand from its current share of just over 20% to a goal of 35%, halving the growth of global waste, reducing building-sector energy intensity by 25% and increasing global circular material use to at least 15%.

The Climate Implementation Bridge, a new COP31 Presidency effort, is intended to connect these ambitions to delivery by helping countries translate NDCs into investment-ready project portfolios and address barriers to project preparation, coordination and access to finance.

These efforts build on implementation initiatives carried forward from COP30, including the Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3 trillion, the Roadmap on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels and the Roadmap on Halting and Reversing Deforestation. Together, they provide continuity from previous COP outcomes, while the negotiations and Presidency-led initiatives seek to accelerate implementation and mobilize action and investment.

What to watch ahead of COP31

Related events leading up to COP31 are shaping both the conference agenda and the broader climate finance:

  • The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17),[2] taking place in Yerevan, Armenia, from 19 to 30 October 2026, will provide an important opportunity to assess progress on global biodiversity goals, while reinforcing growing links between climate and nature finance ahead of COP31.
  • At the multilateral level, the Veredas Dialogue provides a platform to advance discussions on implementing Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement and its complementarity with Article 9, including how financial flows can support climate-resilient development. The Xingu Finance Talks, held in Bangkok under the Veredas Dialogue, will provide a dedicated forum for governments, international financial institutions and the private sector to exchange on practical solutions for mobilizing and aligning finance with climate goals.
  • An important milestone in this broader process will be the Pacific Pre-COP in Fiji, hosted by Australia in partnership with Fiji, Tuvalu and other Pacific partners from 5 to 8 October 2026. The meeting will provide an opportunity to surface Pacific priorities in discussions ahead of negotiations in Antalya.

UNEP FI at COP31

COP31 will provide an important platform for UNEP FI members to engage on a wide range of climate and finance issues, through events and discussions with the COP Presidencies, ministries of finance, financial regulators and other key stakeholders.

Through its COP31 portfolio, UNEP FI will create opportunities for members to share experiences, shape discussions and explore practical pathways for financial sector action on climate, in key areas, including:

  • Mobilizing transformational finance: The Transformational Finance for Climate Group, of which UNEP FI is a member, will launch its COP31 position paper, bringing together governments and public and private financial institutions to address investment barriers and capital mobilization.
  • Showcasing transition finance in practice: UNEP FI will co-organize a workshop featuring case studies from private financial institutions on transition finance.
  • Accelerating financial institution transition plans: UNEP FI will co-organize an event with key partners focused on accelerating the development and adoption of transition plans by financial institutions.
  • Advancing climate adaptation and resilience: As one of the organizations supporting implementation of the ASEAN Taxonomy, UNEP FI will contribute to a Monetary Authority of Singapore event on advancing climate adaptation and resilience across ASEAN.

Check back on UNEP FI’s website for more information on these and other events and initiatives leading up to and during COP31.

 

[1] Officially, the thirty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

[2] Officially, the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).