Why is Flemish Climate Minister Melissa Depraetere returning to the UN climate summit?
Flemish Climate Minister Melissa Depraetere will attend COP31 in Antalya in November, placing Flanders back inside Belgium’s ministerial representation as governments prepare their negotiating positions.
In 30 seconds
- COP31 is scheduled for 9-20 November 2026 at the Antalya EXPO Center.
- Türkiye holds the COP31 presidency; Australia’s Chris Bowen leads the negotiations.
- Flanders influences COP talks through Belgium’s coordinated position and the EU mandate.
- Jean-Luc Crucke and Ans Persoons are also expected to attend.
Flemish Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Energy and Climate will attend the United Nations climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November, her cabinet announced on Friday, 21 August. The Vooruit minister said Flanders wants a place at the table as governments negotiate how to turn climate commitments into practical measures. Her attendance is confirmed, but her precise travel dates, delegation size and detailed negotiating priorities have not yet been published.
Depraetere described global warming as no longer a distant problem and argued that the response must be organised internationally. Her cabinet connected the decision to increasingly visible climate risks, including repeated heatwaves and the August wildfire in the High Fens. Those events do not by themselves establish the effect of climate change on any individual disaster, but they have sharpened the political debate over prevention, adaptation and the affordability of measures for households.
COP31 will take place at the Antalya EXPO Center. The UN climate secretariat says Türkiye will hold the conference presidency and lead its action agenda, while Australian Climate Change and Energy Minister will direct the formal negotiations under an unusual power-sharing arrangement. The stated emphasis is implementation: translating national emissions and adaptation plans into measurable action, finance and investment rather than reopening the architecture of the Paris Agreement.
Flanders will not negotiate as a sovereign party. Under the EU system, the and its 27 member states coordinate common positions, while Belgium must first reconcile the views of its federal government, Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. VRT NWS explained during Depraetere’s 2024 visit to COP29 that a Flemish minister can influence the Belgian position and, through it, the EU line, but does not conduct a separate Flemish negotiation with other countries. Belgian ministers and officials traditionally coordinate during the conference.
That distinction matters because climate policy in Belgium is divided rather than neatly tiered. The regions control major levers including buildings, spatial planning, much transport policy, renewable-energy deployment and environmental permits. The federal government retains responsibilities including taxation, product policy, parts of energy policy, development cooperation and Belgium’s international representation. EU legislation supplies binding targets and a large part of the regulatory framework. COP diplomacy therefore exposes the same coordination challenge that shapes climate policy at home: Belgium speaks internationally with one voice assembled from several governments.
The 2026 arrangement gives Flanders a prominent ministerial role alongside the federal level. Federal Minister for Mobility, Climate and Ecological Transition Jean-Luc Crucke of Les Engagés is also expected to attend, as is Brussels State Secretary for Climate Transition of Vooruit. In 2025, Crucke and Walloon Minister for Energy and the Air-Climate Plan Cécile Neven of MR formed the smaller ministerial representation at COP30. Belgian governments subsequently adopted a rotation principle for regional representation, according to reporting on the new delegation.
For Depraetere, the trip also restores continuity after a stop-start Flemish presence. VRT NWS reported that her participation at COP29 in Baku in 2024 was the first by a Flemish climate minister since Zuhal Demir attended COP25 in Madrid in 2019. Flanders did not send its climate minister to COP30 in Brazil under the reduced-delegation arrangement, although Depraetere said every country still needed to play its part. Her return to COP31 is therefore less a policy reversal than the next stage of a negotiated Belgian rotation.
The political argument is not simply attendance versus absence. Depraetere and Vooruit present participation as necessary to defend Flemish interests and connect international promises to energy, industrial, transport and adaptation policy. Groen, from the opposition, broadly supports greater climate ambition but has repeatedly argued in the Flemish Parliament that the current governing programme does not yet match the scale of the targets. Vlaams Belang takes a sharply different view, questioning international climate spending and arguing that Flemish taxpayers’ money should remain focused on domestic needs. In a December 2025 parliamentary exchange, Vlaams Belang member Filip Brusselmans challenged overseas climate expenditure; Depraetere replied that climate impacts cross borders and said Flanders would continue making what she called its fair contribution.
There is also a more technocratic test. The ’s January 2026 assessment of Belgium’s final updated National Energy and Climate Plan found that Belgium projected a 42.7 percent reduction in emissions covered by the Effort Sharing Regulation by 2030, short of its binding 47 percent target before the use of legal flexibilities. The Commission said Belgium could still meet the obligation using those flexibilities, but judged its proposed 20.4 percent renewable-energy contribution significantly below the 33 percent indicated by the EU governance formula. That gap makes the content of Belgium’s domestic measures more consequential than the number of ministers photographed in Antalya.
COP31 will nevertheless provide a forum for issues where Belgium has identifiable expertise. The Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs says Belgian diplomat Ulrik Lenaerts, deputy head of the national climate delegation, has helped facilitate UN work on the relationship between oceans and climate. Ocean protection, small-island vulnerability, implementation of national climate plans and climate investment are expected to feature in the road to Antalya, alongside the persistent question of how costs should be shared between established industrial economies and fast-growing emitters.
The immediate next step is intra-Belgian and European coordination. Depraetere will need the ’s backing for positions she advances within the Belgian process, while Crucke and the regional representatives must settle a common line before EU coordination produces the mandate used in the formal negotiations. The useful measure of the trip will therefore not be attendance alone. It will be whether the delegation arrives with coherent positions on implementation, adaptation and finance—and whether those positions are consistent with policies Belgium and Flanders can deliver before the 2029 regional and federal elections and the EU’s 2030 deadline.
What to do
No immediate household rule or payment changes merely because Depraetere attends COP31. Readers should watch the run-up to 9 November 2026 for Belgium’s coordinated position and any Flemish announcements on buildings, transport, renewable energy, industry, land use or climate finance. Those subsequent decisions—not attendance itself—could affect renovation requirements and support, energy costs, mobility choices or business investment. COP31 ends on 20 November 2026; any agreement reached there would still need translation into EU, Belgian or Flemish measures before creating concrete obligations or benefits.
Impact
Regional — Flanders controls important climate instruments involving buildings, transport, renewable energy, industry and land use. Decisions shaped through EU and Belgian coordination can therefore affect household renovation, energy prices, mobility choices and industrial investment.
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Voices & reactions
What the main actors are doing
Reported positions, summarised — not direct quotationsDepraetere and Vooruit
Depraetere presents Flemish participation as necessary because climate risks cross borders and international decisions affect regional energy, industrial and adaptation policy. Her frame combines stronger action with attention to household affordability and social protection.
Groen opposition
Groen supports active participation and stronger international action but argues that attendance must be matched by more ambitious domestic measures. Its Flemish parliamentarians have questioned whether the governing programme and emissions trajectory are sufficient for the stated targets.
Vlaams Belang opposition
Vlaams Belang questions spending Flemish public money on international climate finance and has argued that domestic needs should take priority. The party also scrutinises the cost and practical value of international delegations and overseas projects.
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