Click to expand Image The entrance to the venue for the COP31 UNFCCC Climate Conference in Antalya, Türkiye, November 10, 2026. © 2026 Cansu Acar, Bianet (Istanbul, November 11, 2026) – While world leaders gather in Antalya for the United Nations climate change conference (COP31) on November 11 and 12 to discuss how to accelerate global climate action and implement their climate commitments, Turkish authorities’ reluctance to stop expansion of coal operations in the country and plan an exit from fossil fuels sends the wrong message as the co-host of COP31 and undermines the credibility of its commitments and agenda, Human Rights Watch said today. In July 2026, the Turkish government appealed a June court ruling rejecting a plan to add two new units to the Afşin-Elbistan coal power plant A in Türkiye’s southeastern Kahramanmaraş province. In the same month, the government embarked on the permit process to expand the capacity of an existing coal power plant in the northwestern Çanakkale province. “The court cancellation of the Afşin-Elbistan power plant expansion felt like a turning point in longstanding local community efforts to halt Türkiye’s coal expansion plans,” said Deniz Bayram, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Yet Turkish authorities seem determined to expand coal, even as they host COP31, taking Türkiye in the wrong direction when it comes to combatting climate change and protecting community members’ right to health.” Two administrative courts in Kahramanmaraş issued rulings rejecting the expansion plan in June. These rulings concerned five separate court challenges brought against the expansion by local governments, civil society organizations, and community members. Human Rights Watch submitted an amicus curiae brief in June 2025 in one of the five cases brought to the Kahramanmaraş administrative courts by the Turkish Medical Foundation. The brief drew on Human Rights Watch research findings in a 2024 report documenting the serious public health and environmental concerns arising from the existing operation of the power plant.The Kahramanmaraş Administrative Court No. 3 ruling cancelled the project, drawing on two court-commissioned expert reports to inform its decision. In setting out its grounds for cancellation the court cited these reports. Human Rights Watch cited some of the same grounds in its amicus brief. The grounds included the lack of a proper air quality assessment and the superficial assessment of chronic exposure to air pollution, including inadequate consideration given to the cumulative impacts from a public health standpoint in the environmental impact assessment approving the expansion. The court expert reports noted in particular that the impact assessment had not properly evaluated health impacts for at-risk groups such as children, older people, and individuals with chronic illnesses, and made no comprehensive assessment of the long-term respiratory and cardiovascular risks posed by chemicals and pollutants released from fossil fuel combustion. Further grounds in the expert report included the finding that the authors had falsified the number of participants recorded at a public participation meeting about the project in the context of the environmental impact assessment procedure, and that a majority of those who did attend opposed the coal power plant expansion. In Türkiye’s Aegean region, clearance of the Akbelen forest and olive groves to pursue coal mining to supply two old coal power plants is proceeding, despite local opposition. In 2025, coal accounted for 33.9 percent (120.86 billion kWh) of Türkiye’s total electricity generation. Türkiye is one of the only four European countries, together with Poland, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, that have not committed phase out coal or set a timeline for ending coal-fired power generation. The National Energy Plan announced by the Turkish government on November 5 aims to advance electrification and energy independence by 2040 but sets no concrete target to phase out fossil fuels despite ambitious commitments to invest in renewable energy and electrification.Türkiye is not alone in sending mixed signals on climate leadership, however, Australia, COP31’s co-host and one of the biggest coal exporters, is also pursuing fossil fuel expansion at home, exposing the growing disconnect between both countries’ international climate rhetoric and their domestic energy policies. While the emphasis both countries have placed on electrification is an important step toward climate action, their failure to address the need to halt new fossil fuel projects and ensure a fair and equitable phase-out of fossil fuels risks undermining this progress. “The COP31 co-hosts Türkiye and Australia should adopt resolute policies to end the expansion of new fossil fuel projects and set a clear timeline for phasing out existing coal power plants,” Bayram said. “Cancelling coal projects that are still in the permit procedure could be an important step toward this.”