Turkey Promotes Itself as a Climate Champion. Not Everyone Agrees.

Turkey’s global ambitions are written all over the walls of the sprawling conference center in Antalya, the Mediterranean resort city where it is host to the United Nations climate summit that opened on Monday.

“Turkey, where dialogue becomes action,” read giant signs throughout the venue.

“The Future of the World is in Turkey!” read others.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long sought to position Turkey as a rising economic and military power that can mediate conflicts and play a muscular role in international affairs. Welcoming the tens of thousands of officials, ecologists, activists and others attending the U.N. summit, known as COP31, gives the country an opportunity to extend its diplomatic efforts into the critical realm of climate diplomacy, experts said.

But Turkey’s efforts to portray itself as a climate champion run counter to some of its policies, critics said, and to its suppression of environmental activism. They say the country lacks a clear timeline for phasing out coal, continues to import large amounts of plastic waste from Europe and is heavy-handed in its treatment of residents who oppose mining projects.

The climate summit comes months after Turkey hosted its fellow members of the NATO military alliance in the Turkish capital, Ankara, where it showcased its value as a defense partner in an unstable region and the bonhomie between Mr. Erdogan and President Trump.

Now, Turkey seeks to cast itself as a key player in international climate talks, too.

“Turkey wants to show itself as a global power in many different places, including for peace, for climate, for trade,” said Umit Sahin, who heads the climate change program at Istanbul Policy Center, a research institute.

That ambition, he said, led the government to see the climate summit as “an important global prestige event.”

Some who have clashed with the government about environment concerns disagree with how Turkey presents itself.

“Today in Turkey, villagers’ lands are usurped without their consent, just because corporations demand it,” said Esra Isik, 26, who in July was sentenced to 25 months in prison for preventing an official from doing their duty during a protest against the expansion of a coal mine near her home in southern Turkey.

“Then, they organize a summit like this,” she said of the climate conference.

She remains free while her lawyers appeal her conviction.

COP31 provides Turkey with an enormous platform.

The summit, scheduled to run through Nov. 20, will include officials from nearly 200 countries, the government says. Many more could visit the venue, whose landscaped grounds include restaurants and environmentally themed exhibits put on by Turkey and visiting delegations from around the world.

Under a unique arrangement, Turkey is co-host of the event with Australia. Turkey is organizing the venue and promoting voluntary environmental pledges while Australia oversees the closed-door negotiations that will determine the official outcome.

Turkish officials have said that this gathering will focus more on pushing governments to take action than on reaching binding new climate agreements.

In opening the summit, Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister and this year’s COP president, said Turkey sought to bring countries together.

“Turkey has long served as a bridge,” he said. “Our aim is to find common ground that reflects the expectations of North and South, of developed and developing countries.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Kurum denied any knowledge of arrests at mine sites.

“Turkey is one of the fairest countries in the world in this regard,” he told reporters.

He also said that a protest march slated for Saturday outside the conference venue will be allowed, without arrests or detentions.

“Anyone can do their peaceful demonstration here,” he said.

Turkey’s own climate record is mixed.

Its government did not ratify the 2016 Paris agreement, which committed countries to take steps to reduce global warming, until 2021.

More recently, it adopted a sweeping environmental law; promised to increase electrification to cover 35 percent of national energy demand by 2035; and announced a net-zero emissions target for 2053 — the 600th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

Recent years have seen large investments in wind and solar power. Last year, 43 percent of Turkey’s electricity came from renewables, according to Ember, a research group.

But the country retains a significant dependence on fossil fuels.

In 2024, it overtook Germany to become Europe’s largest producer of electricity from coal.

Last year, 34 percent of Turkish electricity came from coal, much of it imported, Ember said. Another 22 percent came from natural gas, most of it from Russia. Germanwatch, an environmental advocacy group, has ranked Turkey among the “very low overall performers” on its Climate Change Performance Index.

The lack of clear commitments to phase out coal or reduce overall emissions undermines Turkey’s environmental credentials, experts said.

Without those policies, said Mr. Sahin of Istanbul Policy Center, “being a climate leader is quite contradictory.”

Turkish officials have said adjusting the country’s energy mix will take time.

In the run-up to the climate summit, Turkey’s energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, presented an energy vision for 2040 that included increased electrification, further investments in wind and solar power and increased domestic gas production.

Moving away from coal would endanger the jobs of thousands of coal miners, he said, suggesting that nuclear power could eventually replace coal for energy generation.

Rights groups accuse the Turkish government of siding with big business against environmental activists when it comes to mining and other projects that can harm the environment and threaten traditional livelihoods.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch looked at how the government dealt with residents in two places who opposed coal and gold mining projects that threatened local communities and forests.

The report said the authorities had used tear gas, water cannons and pepper spray to disperse protesters and accused the government of arbitrary arrests and prosecutions to punish activism.

“Turkey is hosting the most important climate conference this year while the environmental defenders and local community members protesting problematic mining projects have been treated very badly by the security officers,” said Deniz Bayram, a Turkey researcher who worked on the report.

The government has licensed extensive mining projects and says the security forces intervene to break up illegal protests and restore order.

Ms. Isik, the protester, said her prosecution had left her pessimistic that the U.N. talks could help Turkey’s environmentalists.

“What they will discuss there is, once again, the decisions they will make regarding our lives and our future,” she said. “Given the practices up to this point, it is crystal clear that these decisions will not serve the public interest.”

Safak Timur and Gulsin Harman contributed reporting from Istanbul. Lisa Friedman contributed reporting from Antalya, Turkey.