The 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), hosted by Türkiye, opened in Antalya on 9 November 2026. Throughout the conference, SETA is sharing its research on climate policy, energy transition and climate finance with participants at its stand in the Climate Finance Hub in the Green Zone. Alongside the stand, the SETA Climate Change and Environment Programme is organising two panels, one in the Blue Zone and the other in the Green Zone.
The Programme's first panel is titled "Whose Climate Security? Order, Nature, People and Publics". It will take place on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, at 17.00 in Special Event Room 4 (Perge) in the Blue Zone. Prof. Dr. Murat Yeşiltaş, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at SETA, will moderate the panel. The speakers are former Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceren Uysal Oğuz and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Senem Atvur of Akdeniz University, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Başar Baysal of Ankara Social Sciences University. The panel will discuss whose security is brought to the fore when climate change is treated as a security issue. It will take up this question under four headings. These are the international order, nature, people and publics. Varank will assess energy security and the critical mineral dependence created by the clean energy transition from the perspective of industrial and technology policy. Uysal Oğuz will examine the state of the international climate regime after the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement. Atvur will discuss the ecological security approach, which takes ecosystems themselves as the referent object of security. Baysal will share research findings on how the public and members of parliament in Türkiye perceive climate change as a security issue.
The second panel, "Competing Perceptions in Climate Governance", will be held on Sunday, 15 November 2026, at 14.15 in the Climate Finance Hub in the Green Zone. The panel will be held in Turkish and moderated by Dr. Çağla Vural, researcher in the SETA Climate Change and Environment Programme. The speakers are Asst. Prof. Dr. Muhammed Onur Çöpoğlu of Ordu University, SETA researcher Büşra Zeynep Özdemir, and Dr. Sezen Kaya Sönmez of Kadir Has University. The panel will compare why actors in climate governance see the same problem differently, and what this means for policy, at three scales. The first is local communities that experience climate change through concrete events such as wildfires, floods and drought. The second is Türkiye, which strikes a balance between energy security, development and climate commitments. The third is the European Union, which brings climate, energy and competitiveness together in a single framework.
The SETA Climate Change and Environment Programme aims to produce and disseminate strategic knowledge on climate change and the environment. The Programme works on climate security, energy transition, climate diplomacy, environment and society, and climate economics. Ahead of the conference, SETA ran a comprehensive programme, including the "Towards COP31" webinar series and publications, to strengthen Türkiye's place in climate diplomacy. Participants can visit the SETA stand throughout the conference.