World leaders will take the stage at COP31 in Turkiye on Wednesday (November 11, 2026) but some prominent names are missing from this year’s annual UN climate summit even as global warming intensifies.
But observers have pointed to the absence of some big names, with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are skipping the event While European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is coming to Antalya. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi are also absent from the most recent list.
Dozens of leaders will speak during the “high-level segment” taking place on Wednesday (November 11, 2026) and Thursday (November 12, 2026), including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian. Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s top climate official, said the absences were “not completely atypical” as leaders may have “practical” reasons for not being able to attend a summit.
Because november 11 is World War I Armistice Day and the President will attend an EU summit in Ireland on Thursday (November 12, 2026), macron would be absent.
The French government said Mr. “If top leaders want influence over where the global (energy) transition is going, showing up is a pretty good place to start,” said Chiara Martinelli, director of Climate Action Network Europe. “I am afraid that Ursula von der Leyen will be lonely on the stage while the leaders of the biggest EU economies are a no-show,” Martinelli said.
