Madar (Nouakchott) - Mauritania's Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development left Nouakchott on Saturday 7 November 2026 for Turkey to take part in the 31st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31), the Mauritanian News Agency (AMI) reported.
The conference is being held in the Turkish city of Antalya from 9 to 20 November, according to the United Nations.
Turkey is hosting and presiding over the conference, while Australia is in charge of presiding over negotiations between states, under a compromise reached at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, after both countries had sought to host this session, according to the European information website Touteleurope. A summit of heads of state and government is scheduled for 11 and 12 November, according to the same source.
The conference opens amid UN warnings about the slow pace of emission cuts: in its annual report published in October 2026, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that global emissions would need to fall by 45% by 2035 compared with 2025 levels to return to a 1.5C pathway, while current climate pledges, if fully implemented, would deliver a cut of only 11 to 15%, the website reported.
The minister called, during Climate Week in New York in September, for stronger international cooperation to address the effects of climate change, pointing to growing pressure from drought, desertification and land degradation on countries in the region.
