South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas has labelled the process for selecting a host of the COP31 global climate conference as “obscene”, after Australia ended up yielding to rival Turkey.

Three years of campaigning to bring the talks to Adelaide, in partnership with Pacific nations, were dashed in last-gasp negotiations at the 2025 event in Brazil.

While Australia had the backing of the “Western” grouping to stage the 2026 event, under UN rules hosting rights are decided by consensus, not a vote. In a stand-off with Turkey, Australia compromised by withdrawing its bid to stage the event.

On Thursday, Malinauskas said his state government had already spent almost $4 million on its failed COP31 bid, and that his last conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the event was on Tuesday night.

“I understand the position that the Prime Minister has taken,” Malinauskas said.

“He has taken a position to try to navigate the, quite frankly, obscene process that exists internationally.

“It’s very clear that the rest of the world largely would have preferred COP to be in Adelaide, but that Turkey was going to exercise their veto right.”

Peter Malinauskas hasn’t ruled out Adelaide bidding for a future COP. Photo: InDaily

Climate Minister Chris Bowen, Australia’s representative at the COP talks, confirmed a compromise model after discussions with Turkey.

Antalya, a Mediterranean resort city popular with Russian tourists, will host the summit, while Bowen will take the role of COP negotiations president, with a lead-up event in the Pacific.

The result is a diplomatic disaster for Albanese’s government, which has spent great energy and, most likely, tens of millions of dollars campaigning for the event.

The government championed the bid as a huge opportunity to lead the world on emissions reductions, and secure “the world’s biggest clean energy trade fair” to bring investment for Australian business.

Despite that, Albanese insisted the negotiated outcome was a “big win” for Australia.

“We will be the negotiator on climate policy globally over the next year and during the conference. That is a very worthwhile investment,” he told the ABC on Thursday.

“Had we not put in bid for the COP, that certainly wouldn’t have occurred, and that will enable us to prioritise the issues that are confronting the Pacific, the very existence of countries like Tuvalu and Kiribati.”

Bowen said he kept Pacific hopes in mind during the negotiations, with the compromise including a “pre-COP” event in the Pacific, which will also be a pledging event for the Pacific Resilience Fund.

“Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all. But we can’t have it all,” he said.

The Turkish embassy in Australia said the Pacific would be taken into account.

“We will ensure that no one is left behind, particularly the regions that are most adversely affected by climate change including the Pacific,” the embassy said.

“The Mediterranean, on the other hand, is a recognised climate hotspot warming 20 per cent faster than the global average, and facing growing threats from extreme heat, water scarcity and biodiversity loss.”

The embassy also argued Turkey was well-positioned to bridge the gap on climate policy between developed and developing nations.

Adelaide Lord Mayor Dr Jane Lomax-Smith was in Brazil to lobby for the bid, but Premier Peter Malinauskas (far right) remained in SA. Photo montage: InDaily

Malinaukas said Adelaide’s bid still had benefits, and did not rule out taking another shot at hosting a future COP.

“We put it into motion, a quite strategic effort at a political level, but also at a bureaucratic level, to demonstrate to the rest of the country that in the event that Australia won the hosting rights of COP, that it should be in Adelaide,” he said.

However, South Australia’s shadow tourism minister Penny Pratt said the loss of the summit was “a huge blow for our tourism sector”.

The SA Liberals have previously called on the state government to release a “full and transparent” report on how much has been spent on the COP31 bid.

Adelaide Lord Mayor Dr Jane Lomax-Smith returned from COP30 this week after helping lobby for Australia’s bid.

“I couldn’t do more than I’ve done,” Lomax-Smith told InDaily on Wednesday. “I was at every event, speaking at every event, going to every lobby group and spruiking about Adelaide.”

It was clear from the start that Labor didn’t really want to host the CoP climate summit.

Labor didn’t want to be grilled by the world over the North West Shelf gas extension, or their 31 coal and gas approvals, or their pathetic climate target.

— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) November 19, 2025

Some critics, including federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, pointed at the likely cost of staging the summit, which had been estimated above $2 billion.

“I think Turkey is doing the Australian government a big favour,” she told the ABC on Thursday.

“We had a $12 billion deficit last year. We’re heading to a $42 billion deficit this coming year, and meanwhile, this Prime Minister wants to spend $2 billion on hosting a talkfest here in this country?”

Greens leader Larissa Waters suggested the government’s pursuit of hosting rights was “greenwashing” its climate record.

“The PM never really wanted to host a climate conference that needed him to be honest about the future of coal and gas while his mining corp mates are watching,” she wrote on social media.

–InDaily, with AAP