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Aerial view of Side in Antalya.
Event

SEI at COP31

Discover below how SEI is contributing to global climate action through collaboration, engagement and impact at this year’s COP in Antalya.

9 to 20 November 2026

Use the tabs below to explore SEI’s events by theme. All times are local Antalya time (UTC+3).

COP31 will be hosted by Türkiye from 9 to 20 November 2026, with a World Leaders’ Summit on 11–12 November. Building on COP30’s outcomes in Belém, the conference is expected to turn climate commitments into action by strengthening implementation, increasing climate finance and accelerating the transition to clean energy.

Under a Türkiye–Australia partnership, Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, Murat Kurum, serves as COP31 President-designate, while Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, serves as President of Negotiations.

Key issues expected to feature in discussions at COP31 include indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) under the UAE–Belém work programme, operationalization of the Just Transition Mechanism (JTM), loss and damage, climate finance and adaptation finance. Many aspects of the GGA indicators and the JTM remain outstanding following the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn in June 2026.

Alongside the formal negotiations, Türkiye’s COP31 Presidency has established an Action Agenda focused on accelerating implementation and translating existing climate commitments into measurable outcomes. It comprises ten priority themes: clean energy transition and electrification; zero waste and methane reduction; climate-resilient cities; green industrialization; youth and education; food security; oceans and seas; dynamic and resilient health systems; Rio synergies; and the Climate Implementation Bridge.

SEI on site

SEI experts will contribute to these discussions and to broader efforts to advance climate action as speakers, panellists and delegates at events across COP31.

17 November

Localized resilience pathways: small island coastal communities navigating climate vulnerability

Time: 13:00–14:00

Location: Blue Zone

This session showcases island and coastal resilience in the Philippines and Indonesia through local planning, community forums and the documentary film Sa Among Isla. It highlights grassroots climate action and how local vulnerability can be built into planning.

Featuring

Albert Salamanca
Albert Salamanca

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

11 November

From local action to global resilience: community-based climate adaptation in Ukraine and beyond

Time: 13:00–14:00

Location: Ukraine Pavilion

Albert Salamanca will join the panel to present findings from the SEI-led report What counts? The state of evidence of outcomes of locally led adaptation. The report takes stock of how locally led adaptation initiatives have shown they can build climate resilience, examines the divides that have prevented funders from taking up the evidence and recommends actions to boost financial support and keep building knowledge about what works in locally led adaptation.

Featuring

Albert Salamanca
Albert Salamanca

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

12 November

Boundary organization work for urban heatwave adaptation: experiences from Malmö, Sweden

Time: 11:45–12:30

Location: Canada Pavilion, Blue Zone

This presentation explores how boundary organizations can bridge research, policy and practice to strengthen urban adaptation to heatwaves. Drawing on SEI’s HeatSafe project and using Malmö as an example, it highlights how collaboration between researchers, municipal departments, residents and other local actors can connect scientific evidence on heat exposure and social vulnerability with practical adaptation planning.

The central message is that effective heatwave adaptation requires more than technical solutions. It depends on sustained collaboration, shared learning and an understanding of how social inequalities shape both exposure to extreme heat and people’s capacity to cope with it.

Featuring

Åsa Gerger Swartling
Åsa Gerger Swartling

Head of Division - Societies, Climate and Policy Support

SEI Headquarters

12 November

21st Global Forum on Human Settlements at COP31

Time: 13:10–14:10

Location: Marmara Antalya Hotel, Şirinyalı

How can cities strengthen climate resilience while protecting public health and addressing social inequalities? Drawing on SEI’s work with the City of Malmö, Sweden, and on urban heat adaptation in Tallinn and Pärnu, Estonia, this presentation explores approaches to understanding and reducing heat risks. The work combines social vulnerability assessments, community engagement and temperature monitoring to identify hotspots, understand who is most affected and inform urban planning. It highlights the value of cross-sectoral collaboration, equitable green infrastructure and locally grounded knowledge in advancing climate-resilient cities, with opportunities to connect urban heat adaptation with water management and wider resilience goals.

Featuring

Åsa Gerger Swartling
Åsa Gerger Swartling

Head of Division - Societies, Climate and Policy Support

SEI Headquarters

16 November

Climate science for climate action: expanding the science–policy interface

Time: 10:00–10:50

Location: Philippine Pavilion, Blue Zone

Climate science and climate policy meet at a critical interface: science must produce actionable information, and decision-makers must be kept informed of scientific assessments. This matters especially in the Philippines, where reducing climate vulnerability depends on science-informed mitigation and adaptation policies.

Bridging the science–policy gap requires engagement on both sides. This side event brings together scientific experts and climate practitioners to discuss how meaningful collaboration can close it. Key themes include actionable climate information, science-informed policies and building capacity through science.

Featuring

Albert Salamanca
Albert Salamanca

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

17 November

Scientific capacity building for negotiators

Time: 10:00–11:00

Location: UNFCCC Pavilion

Albert Salamanca will join a panel at this UNFCCC-organized session, which aims to bridge gaps between funders and practitioners to scale up adaptation finance.

Featuring

Albert Salamanca
Albert Salamanca

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

13 November

Nature-positive climate finance: towards investable reality

Time: 14:15–15:30

Location: Blue Zone

Humanity cannot survive without healthy, functioning natural systems. Protecting and restoring nature and biodiversity is therefore fundamental to climate resilience, risk management and our collective future. This event will examine how climate finance can better integrate nature into investment decisions and delivery, and how nature-positive finance can move from principle to practical, investable solutions.

Featuring

Annika Markovic
Annika Markovic

Engagement and Impact Director

SEI Headquarters

18 November

Beyond the missing middle: structuring a bankable private adaptation finance pipeline

Time: 13:15–14:45

Location: Side Event Room Blue, Antalya EXPO Center, Blue Zone

Locally led adaptation rarely reaches the private finance it needs. Enterprises in the ‘missing middle’ are too large for microfinance, yet too small or risky for commercial investors. This side event, led by Shushilan with SEI, Bhutan Ecological Society and LI-BIRD, explores how better business models, aggregation and fit-for-purpose instruments can build a bankable private adaptation finance pipeline.

Contributions from the Centre for Finance for Sustainability, Shakti Foundation, ADA, APRACA and the Asia Regional Adaptation Investment Facility will cover multi-stakeholder action lab (MAL) bankability cases and reforms to the enabling environment. A moderated panel of investors and investees follows, with gender equity and social inclusion addressed throughout.

Featuring

Profile image - Wanaporn Yangyuentham
Wanaporn Yangyuentham

Team Leader: Partnerships and Engagement for Impact

SEI Asia

Anastasia Maga
Anastasia Maga

Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Corrado Topi
Corrado Topi

Team Leader - Centre for Finance for Sustainability

SEI Asia

Sara Vigil
Sara Vigil

Head of Division - Societal Transformations

SEI Asia

Architesh Panda

Research Fellow

SEI Asia

17 November

Sustainable AI for the planet and its people? (CODES roundtable)

Time: 16:30–17:30

Location: German Climate Pavilion Stage

Digital technologies and AI can help drive transformative climate and environmental action – but only if they are developed, deployed and scaled in a responsible, just and sustainable way.

This COP31 side event, organized by the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES), will highlight governance initiatives and use cases showing how sustainable digitalization can accelerate NDC implementation, align with climate goals and support the COP31 agenda.

Watch the livestream

Featuring

Somya Joshi
Somya Joshi

Research Director

SEI Headquarters

16 November

Beyond borders: partnerships for scaling a global industrial transition

Time: TBC

Location: Global Mutirão Auditorium, Brazil Pavilion, Blue Zone

Green industrialization cannot be delivered by countries, companies or institutions acting alone. Industrial value chains cross borders, technologies and capital move between markets, and policies and investments in one country can create opportunities and challenges for others.

Scaling the global industrial transition requires stronger partnerships across governments, industry and finance, and across regions and levels of development. This dialogue will identify where stronger partnerships can unlock progress, how successful approaches can be replicated across borders and where further collective action is needed to accelerate the transition.

Featuring

Jane Birch
Jane Birch

Senior Communications and Impact Officer

Communications

SEI Headquarters

12 November

Mining and minerals roundtable

Time: 16:45–17:45

Location: Swedish Pavilion, Blue Zone

Annika Markovic
Annika Markovic

Engagement and Impact Director

SEI Headquarters

Maya Rebermark
Maya Rebermark

Senior Expert in Climate Communications and Impact

Communications

SEI Headquarters

16 November

Distant benefits, localized impacts: governing critical mineral supply chains for a just transition

Time: 09:45–10:45

Location: Sustainable Development Goals Pavilion, Blue Zone

This session will show how critical minerals sit within an interconnected local-to-global system, in which benefits flow along global supply chains while environmental and social impacts concentrate in producing territories. It will examine how different drivers of demand – the energy transition, AI and data centres, and defence and security needs – interact with questions of national and international governance, supply and justice.

Somya Joshi
Somya Joshi

Research Director

SEI Headquarters

10 November

From Belém to Addis Ababa: advancing climate action on forests and food systems

Time: 10:00–11:00

Location: Regional Climate Foundations Pavilion

Toby Gardner
Toby Gardner

Senior Research Fellow and former Trase Co-Director

SEI Headquarters

13 November

The day after: implementing the roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030

Time: 15:00–16:30

Location: TBC

Forests are essential for the climate, biodiversity, livelihoods and economies. This event explores opportunities and pathways to implement the COP30 Presidency’s forest roadmap through global, regional and national action, including finance, international cooperation and regulatory bottlenecks.

Toby Gardner
Toby Gardner

Senior Research Fellow and former Trase Co-Director

SEI Headquarters


SEI experts at COP31

Profile picture of Rob Bailis
Rob Bailis

Senior Scientist

SEI US

Jane Birch
Jane Birch

Senior Communications and Impact Officer

Communications

SEI Headquarters

Toby Gardner
Toby Gardner

Senior Research Fellow and former Trase Co-Director

SEI Headquarters

Åsa Gerger Swartling
Åsa Gerger Swartling

Head of Division - Societies, Climate and Policy Support

SEI Headquarters

Ganna Gladkykh
Ganna Gladkykh

Policy Fellow

SEI Headquarters

Charles Heaps

Senior Scientist

SEI US

Somya Joshi
Somya Joshi

Research Director

SEI Headquarters

Profile picture of Sivan Kartha
Sivan Kartha

Senior Scientist

SEI US

Ulrika Lamberth
Ulrika Lamberth

Senior Press Officer

Communications

SEI Headquarters

Anastasia Maga
Anastasia Maga

Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Chris Malley

Senior Research Fellow

SEI York

Annika Markovic
Annika Markovic

Engagement and Impact Director

SEI Headquarters

Miquel Muñoz Cabré

Senior Scientist

SEI US

Architesh Panda

Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Olesia Polishchuk
Olesia Polishchuk

Events Coordinator

Communications

SEI Headquarters

Maya Rebermark
Maya Rebermark

Senior Expert in Climate Communications and Impact

Communications

SEI Headquarters

Albert Salamanca
Albert Salamanca

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Asia

Corrado Topi
Corrado Topi

Team Leader - Centre for Finance for Sustainability

SEI Asia

Sara Vigil
Sara Vigil

Head of Division - Societal Transformations

SEI Asia

Profile image - Wanaporn Yangyuentham
Wanaporn Yangyuentham

Team Leader: Partnerships and Engagement for Impact

SEI Asia