The 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be hosted by Türkiye in Antalya from 9 to 20 November 2026, and the Conference of Youth (COY21) will be held from 5 to 7 November. COP31 will operate under a shared leadership model, with Australia serving as President of Negotiations. The pre-COP will be held in Fiji from 5 to 8 October, alongside a special leaders' event in Tuvalu, reflecting the significant role of Pacific nations in advancing global climate action.
Mobilising education, arts and culture to advance climate action
Our support of COP is a key part of our Climate Connection strategy. It gives us the opportunity to share impact and learning from our global partnerships, projects and research, while shining a spotlight on the key role of education, youth, arts and culture in climate action.
As COP31 approaches, we are working with strategic partners, policymakers, researchers, artists and young people through a focused programme of online and face-to-face connections leading up to, during and after the conference – in Türkiye, Australia, the Pacific, the UK and around the world.
See highlights below and discover ways you can get involved. Our full programme of COP31 activities will be available in October.
COY21: 5 to 7 November 2026
We will again be a Silver Sponsor for COY, the world’s largest youth-led climate conference.
Organised by YOUNGO, the youth constituency of the UNFCCC, COY21 will bring together young people around the world under the theme 'Climate on every coast'.
At the conference, we will be showing our support for the Global Youth Statement alongside the critical role of young people in driving a just transition to a sustainable future and the contribution of arts, culture and heritage to climate and nature action.
COP31: 9 to 20 November 2026
We are leading and supporting a range of activities across the COP31 conference Blue Zone and Green Zone.
Through our focused programme, we will be collaborating with our strategic partners and young people to highlight the role of education and arts and culture in addressing climate change and to share learning from global best practice.
A detailed programme of our COP31 activities will be available to download in October.
To, from and around the conference
Discover some of our projects and partnerships before, during and after COP31 – and ways to get involved.
Projects and partnerships
From 5 to 7 November, the Youth Negotiators Academy will deliver in-person training for the Climate Youth Negotiator Programme to a cohort of young climate negotiators attending COP31, where they will negotiate as part of their country delegations. In 2026, we are supporting the Youth Negotiators Academy to deliver the Climate Youth Negotiator Programme to 263 young people from 79 countries and are providing funding for members of the trained cohort to attend COP31.
Schools in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London will join our next series of Climate Negotiation Simulation Events. These role-playing UN-style meetings, based on the World Climate Simulation game, provide an immersive experience for students to learn about the complex geo-political factors that influence the global response to the climate crisis. At the start of each event, a welcome video from young climate champions in Turkey will connect UK students to their international peers and showcase what is happening at COP31. A second series of events will take place in 2027. Get involved: teachers can get inspiration to run their own climate conference at school.
In partnership with the University of Exeter and the Met Office, with support from Cambridge International, the Schools Across the Ocean project brings creativity and ocean literacy into classrooms, by connecting schools with international peers, world class educators and leading climate scientists to inspire students to become confident, climate-literate change-makers. This year, the project will partner 25 schools in the UK with 25 schools across Turkey, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, allowing students to work with their international peers on creative responses to the climate crisis and see how climate change is affecting young people globally.
In partnership with the Met Office and the University of Exeter, we are launching an anthology of new climate stories at COP31, as part of the We Are the Possible programme. These new stories are a result of a methodological collaborative process of sharing conversations, writing, data and storytelling between scientists, health experts, educators, youth leaders, students, writers and artists from around the world. The bilingual anthology is inspired by the host country, Türkiye, and its rich tradition of café culture. This has enabled a variety of narrative forms that link climate change, health, biodiversity, loss, adaptation and social justice through the lens of coffee, tea and cacao production – past, present and future. The anthology will also be published as an e-book on the University of Exeter’s Green Futures website at the start of the conference.
In partnership with the Ministry of National Education in Türkiye and the Sabancı Foundation, we are hosting a two-day conference for English teachers from across Türkiye, in September. Taking place in Bursa, the event will enable professional development, knowledge sharing and networking under the theme innovation, technology and the use of AI in English language education. The programme includes a climate-focused keynote session and workshop, connecting climate themes with English language education.
Get involved
Educators can pre-register for the next facilitated sessions of our Learning for Sustainable Futures online course starting 5 October. Delivered in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, the course provides a comprehensive overview of sustainability and its importance for protecting the planet. Pre-registration for our Live at COP online course is now also open. This course will explore what COP31 is, why it matters, and how you can add your voice to the call for collective action toward a sustainable future.
School teachers can download our series of climate change and sustainability resources as an easy and effective way to introduce climate education into the classroom. Use them as standalone resources or as collaborative projects with your international partner school.
Language educators can join our Climate Action in Language Education online course, launching 2 October, to learn how to integrate climate action into language teaching, design activities that build language skills and climate awareness, and support learner engagement in climate action beyond the classroom. With new content and activities, the course provides practical, adaptable strategies for engaging learners with climate-related issues in a range of educational contexts. The course sits alongside a growing collection of free resources designed to help teachers and learners engage with environmental challenges and take meaningful action in their communities.
Spotlights
Spotlight on Türkiye
The Creative Climate Collaborations programme brings together creative practitioners and organisations in the UK and Türkiye to explore climate and environmental challenges, while building lasting connections between the two countries’ creative sectors. The supported collaborations bring together different approaches, from participatory art and climate storytelling to sustainable filmmaking, ecological knowledge and more-than-human design. The projects will include workshops, exhibitions, research, public engagement and digital outputs, with activities taking place around COP31 and continuing beyond it.
As we approach COP31, we’ll be announcing the recipients of our Alumni UK Grants from Türkiye. The grants support projects that address climate change and environmental sustainability through practical, community-driven and creative approaches.
Future-ready tertiary education will be the theme at Going Global Istanbul 2026 – the British Council’s flagship international education conference, taking place 17 to 19 November. This theme will also be explored through a sustainability lens as part of our COP31 programming.
Ahead of COP31, the 3rd Culture x Climate Forum, in Istanbul, will bring together local and international cultural and creative sector stakeholders to explore the role of culture in climate action, offering opportunities for dialogue, knowledge exchange and partnership building between Türkiye-based cultural actors and their global counterparts. Co-organised by Entertainment + Culture Pavilion, EkoFilm: Sürdürülebilir Yapım Platformu, Esmiyor and the Culture Translators Project, with support from the British Council, the event will feed practitioner voices directly into the Culture Global Stocktake ahead of its Draft 3 COP31 showcase. Get involved: register your place at the forum.
Spotlight on Australia
Our climate work in Australia spans leadership development and best practice exchange, exhibitions, artist residencies, grants and long-term partnerships that connect UK and Australian creative practitioners, strengthening creative economies and deepening engagement around environmental challenges. At COP31, we will build on long-term work with strategic partners to expand how arts and culture contribute to climate action.
Co-founder of Creative Climate, Dr Jen Rae, will be joining our activities at COP31. With the British Council as a major, multi-year partner, Creative Climate is a national consortium that supports artists and cultural organisations across the country to develop new approaches to climate leadership, advocacy and creative practice. Dr Jen Rae has been a practice-led researcher working across art, climate emergency, disaster adaptation and advocacy for 20 years, and co-directs the Centre for Reworlding, a 100-year, Indigenous-led project grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems and protocols, prioritising intergenerational justice and advancing the leadership of arts and culture in climate action, disaster risk reduction and ‘joy’ work.
Through our partnership with Creative Climate, we will be showcasing the Radio Climate project at COP31, enabling delegates to tune into a whole new range of audio content made specifically for the conference. Radio Climate is a First Nations and artists-led transmission project turning radio, podcasts, collective listening events, music concerts and gatherings into cultural platforms for care, knowledge-sharing and climate action.
At COP31, we will be showcasing Bilya, a relational map of people, projects and organisations engaging with the climate emergency through creative and social practice, grounded in Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and data sovereignty principles. A project by the Centre for Reworlding, it is supported by APAM, Creative Australia, the Australian National University, Julie's Bicycle, Global Artivism and the British Council. Over the next four years, the platform will expand through workshops, residencies and interactive activities, extending its mapping beyond Australia to the UK, Europe and the Americas.
We are partnering with Powerhouse Parramatta to commission Es Devlin to create six large-scale installations, as part of Australia’s inaugural programme and aligned with COP31. The work invites visitors to see, hear and feel the city as an interconnected web of species, and features 244 hand-drawn at-risk, endangered and critically endangered species from the Sydney Basin bioregion, developed with Brett Summerell, Chief Botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust. The building itself, constructed with no fossil fuels, is on track to become the first public institution in Australia with a six Green Star rating, designed for net zero operational carbon emissions and powered by 100% renewable energy.
As we approach COP31, we will also be announcing the Alumni UK Grants recipients from Australia, who will work on community-driven projects to address climate change and environmental sustainability.
Spotlight on New Zealand and the Pacific
The Trouble in Paradise exhibition features 25 striking images of climate change through the eyes of photographers from across the Pacific. In the lead-up to and during COP31, we are supporting events to showcase images from the exhibition and its companion book, which will be receiving a special reprint to mark the conference. In October, Trouble in Paradise will be featured during a reception at the Ambassador’s Residence in Brussels organised by the Environmental Attaché at the UK Mission to the EU, to mark the visit of Special Representative for Nature Ruth Davis OBE. A special performance and panel discussion at the New Zealand Maritime Museum will connect Trouble in Paradise to the themes of land, sea and sky explored in the museum’s Our Ocean of Islands exhibition.
In November, we are organising a screening of the Complicité film Can I Live? at the New Zealand Maritime Museum, followed by a discussion on climate justice, island futures and resilience featuring Fehinti Balogun.
Global spotlight
In October, we are launching a new British-Council-commissioned report on Culture-based Climate Action. The report by KEA European Affairs explores the growing role of culture in responding to the climate crisis. Drawing on international research, case studies and expert perspectives, the report explores how artists, cultural organisations and creative practitioners are contributing to climate action worldwide, while highlighting key challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
Get involved: join our launch webinar on Wednesday 28 October featuring experts and practitioners from across the international cultural sector, who will discuss the key findings, share examples of innovative practice and explore the role culture can play in addressing one of the defining challenges of our time. Find out more and register (registration opens Monday 28 September).
Our Climate Skills programme, in partnership with HSBC, was created to ensure vulnerable young people are not left behind in the transition to a net-zero economy. Operating in Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, it promotes climate literacy and green economy skills to enhance employability. With a youth-led approach, young people contribute as advisors, evaluators, and co-designers, helping peers understand, mitigate, and adapt to climate change.
At COP31, we will be showcasing the findings of the youth-led Climate Connection Hive research, conducted as part of Climate Skills. The report, Skills for an Inclusive Transition: Youth Realities and Green Opportunity Pathways, provides insights and recommendations for bridging the gap between climate-related skills and green job opportunities. Download the report.