The UN's climate conference starts next week – will nature feature as strongly as it needs to?

After another year of record breaking weather, the impacts of climate change are firmly with us. World leaders must use COP31 to accelerate climate action, and nature needs to be a core part of it.

The 31st climate COP (COP31) is taking place from 9^th to 20^th November, in Antalya, Türkiye. This is the 31^st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, bringing together nations and territories to coordinate action on tackling climate change.

In 2015, at COP21 in Paris, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement – a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The agreement was to limit global temperature rise to "well below" 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C, recognising the increasingly severe climate change impacts we would experience from overshooting 1.5°C, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves and rainfall.

After decades of insufficient action, overshooting 1.5°C is now inevitable.

The UN Environment Programme’s 2026 Emissions Gap Report states warming will exceed 1.5°C - what is in our control, is by how much. Ensuring the overshoot is as small and brief as possible should be absolute priority. Every bit of warming matters in avoiding more extreme impacts.

Nature must feature strongly at COP31

Our response to the climate crisis defines our ability to protect and restore nature; and our efforts to protect and restore nature are integral to both reducing emissions and the impacts of climate change, and building resilience to them. With the UN biodiversity COP finishing just last week, the need to prioritise nature should be clear in the minds of world leaders.

COP31 will have themed days which aim to respond to the most pressing challenges. Here we take a look at some of the themes, highlighting where nature needs to be prioritised, along with some examples from The Wildlife Trusts.

9 November - Food, Agriculture and Health

Working with farmers and landowners to implement nature-friendly practices helps boost resilience to climate change through food and water security. Lancashire Wildlife Trust is part of a project with farmers, researchers and businesses testing wetter farming (also known as paludiculture) as a viable and sustainable way to manage lowland agricultural peatlands. This practice better protects peatlands and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, whilst supporting biodiversity and local livelihoods.

Nature brings enormous benefits for people’s health and well-being, for example, through access to nature-rich spaces, supporting mental health, and improving air and water quality. Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Wild Health project is enabling greater participation in action for local wildlife and climate change. It focusses on people with specific health conditions, helping them improve their health and wellbeing through nature-focussed sessions.

10 November - Energy and Transport

Moving to clean energy is imperative to minimising climate change. This means moving away from fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) to electric sources which are generated through renewable means (wind, solar and hydro power).

Multiple Wildlife Trusts are looking for opportunities to play their part in the energy transition. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust worked with Wiltshire Wildlife Community Energy to install solar panels on the roof of the Brockbank Centre at Langford Lakes Nature Reserve. The solar panels help power a water-source heat pump, which provides heating and hot water for the centre. Any additional electricity needed is provided by a renewable energy provider.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust has pioneered work on nature-friendly solar farms. Results of 12 years of ecological monitoring reveal a 41% increase in biodiversity across the Broxted Estate and Solar Farm, achieved through an approach that prioritises conservation and community objectives.

Three mallard ducklings swimming on a green pond, the first flapping its wings to lift itself out of the water

12 November - Resilient Cities and Built Environment

Creating and protecting green and blue spaces in urban areas, such as trees, ponds, watercourses and wetlands, helps build resilience to flooding and extreme heat.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has partnered with Intact Insurance to deliver the Waterscapes Project which is implementing nature-based solutions to flooding for communities, whilst boosting biodiversity. They are showing how measures such as wetlands, leaky dams and rain gardens capture, slow and redirect water – making communities much more climate resilient.

Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Act to Adapt project is supporting communities across Somerset to co-create community led adaptation plans which are already helping people to respond, and build resilience, to climate change in their places. The Act Together to Adapt project builds on this, engaging with local government to ensure these visions are recognised and help to shape action going forward. Supporting and scaling local action like this is essential to meeting national and international climate goals.

Humpback whale (c) Richard Shucksmith/scotlandbigpicture.com

17 November - Ocean, Seas, Nature and Land Use

Healthy habitats such as peatlands, woodlands, and saltmarsh provide excellent nature-based solutions to climate change, by providing natural carbon stores and helping us cope with extreme weather.

Scottish Wildlife Trust are part of a partnership called Riverwoods which is creating a network of thriving river woodlands and river systems across Scotland. This work will support climate resilience and carbon storage, habitat connectivity and wildlife protection, food and water security, and wider health benefits for people.

What do the Wildlife Trusts want to see?

We're not expecting any new or significant negotiated outcomes this year, unlike previous climate COPs. The focus is likely to be on accelerating action and how to deliver the many pledges that countries have already made. We hope this will include:

Nature at the heart of climate action

Nature is not an optional extra in the fight against climate change, it is a necessity. Nature and forests were a focus of last year’s COP30 in Brazil, with the launch of a tropical forests fund and negotiations around aligning climate and nature action.

Oceans and seas have been highlighted as a priority topic at COP31 so we hope to see bold progress in this area, alongside wider commitments to prioritise nature. For too long the global and national efforts to respond to climate change and nature loss have been planned and delivered in siloes, when a more joined up approach would help deliver better and more cost-effective outcomes. We also want to see progress on effectively using ‘synergies’ between climate and nature, in policy and practise.

Commitment to phase out fossil fuels

COP28 produced a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. This was a significant moment in climate COP history, despite falling short of urging a full “phase-out” of fossil fuels.

At subsequent COPs, any mention of fossil fuels in the final decisions, has been blocked by a number of countries who are heavily invested in fossil fuels. Outside the COP process, 60 countries met in April 2026 for the first global summit dedicated to transitioning away from fossil fuels. There’s hope this, and efforts by some countries to develop national roadmaps to implement fossil fuel phase out, will bring join-up and momentum to the conversation at COP31.

Progress on climate finance

At COP29, a goal was agreed to mobilise $300 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2035 (tripling the previous goal), with the aspiration to reach $1.3 trillion a year which is more in line with what developing countries actually need.

Current commitments don’t come close, but this finance is essential for the poorest and most vulnerable countries to be able to prepare for and cope with climate change impacts – and to enable the recovery of critical ecosystems on which we all depend. At COP31, we need to see developed countries making these commitments a reality.

The UN's climate conference starts next week – will nature feature as strongly as it needs to?

Eleanor Johnston

Nature must feature strongly at COP31