Türkiye has appointed Australia's nominated Presidency Youth Climate Champion, Sally Higgins, for COP31. The global climate summit will take place in Antalya, Türkiye, in November 2026.
Sally is a farmer from Allora, a small town in Queensland's Darling Downs. Five years ago, she and her partner started their own mixed cattle and cropping farm. Farming is central to who she is - she loves the connection to the land, the industry, and her local community.
That connection to place is exactly what she's bringing to this role. Through a Nuffield Farming Scholarship, Sally is exploring how Australian agriculture can adapt to a net zero future. She finds real hope in what's already happening across rural and remote Australia and is looking forward to learning more from the Pacific and the rest of the world.
As Youth Climate Champion, Sally will work with young people across the globe to help shape climate action and COP31 outcomes. She will bring youth perspectives into decision-making spaces, support youth leadership, and elevate youth-led solutions on the global stage.
What Sally is hearing from young people
As Sally steps into the role, she's already listening. Early conversations with young people, including at Asia Climate Week, are revealing some clear, consistent themes.
Young people want to be part of making decisions, not just consulted along the way. They want climate processes that are genuinely open to everyone - where cost, visas, and complexity aren't barriers to having a seat at the table. They're watching closely to see whether commitments actually translate into action. They're also calling for more voices in the room, especially from communities that are underrepresented and on the frontlines of climate change.
These insights are shaping how Sally will show up in her role and what she'll bring to COP31.
About COP31
Every year, the world comes together at the global climate summit , known as COP, to agree on climate action and track progress against shared goals. This year, COP31 heads to Antalya, Türkiye, in November 2026.
And this year is different. For the first time in the summit's history, 2 countries and a region - the Pacific - are running it together. Türkiye is hosting in Antalya, including the Leader's Summit and leading the Action Agenda in close consultation with Australia. The Action Agenda is the part of COP that brings together groups from outside the formal UN processes focused on turning climate commitments into real action.
Australia is leading the negotiations for COP31. The formal process where countries work through the hard conversations on targets, rules, and the ambition needed to drive global change.
Australia is also partnering with Pacific nations to host the pre-COP meetings and leaders' events in Fiji and Tuvalu. These meetings will ensure the voices of those most affected by climate change are part of the conversation at COP31.
This genuine partnership shows how countries can work together to tackle a global challenge that demands global action.
Sally will be at the heart of it, making sure young people have a real say in the solutions that emerge.
To learn more about Sally and the COP31 Youth Climate Champion role, watch this interview with Sally.
Transcript
My name is Sally. I'm from a small town called Allora on the Darling Downs in regional Queensland.
The COP31 presidency youth climate champion role exists to elevate the perspectives and voices of young people in international climate decision making.
Over the course of my term as the Youth Climate Champion for COP31, my focus will be on elevating the perspectives of young people and elevating the great work and community-led action that's already taking place around the world.
I'm keen to look at the great work that's coming from our neighbours in the Pacific and those community-led models towards taking genuine action on addressing climate impacts.
I've grown up and have always lived around agriculture and the environment from growing up on the Darling Downs. So caring for the environment, stewarding country for future generations is I suppose a big part of my story and also the story of my home community and other agricultural communities around the country.
My partner Gus and I run our own farm at home in Allora. It's a mixed cattle and cropping farm. We're new to farming, we just started the business about five years ago.
And I suppose only have been able to get into farming because of the support of our community and the industry.
We absolutely love farming and we love being connected to the land and the opportunity to be connected to the agricultural industry and our home community.
For the last two years, I've been completing a Nuffield Farming Scholarship, looking into how to manage and respond to the competing demands on agricultural land use.
My home region on the Darling Downs is experiencing a lot of competition for agricultural land and natural resources. And I wanted to travel around the world and look at how are other countries and industries managing those competing demands, and how can we balance multiple objectives both for the climate, for industries and for communities.
I get a lot of hope from the local innovations that I see happening across rural and remote Australia and I'm keen to see more of what's happening across the Pacific and globally as well. People making use of their finite resources, their networks, their connection to community and country and doing great work without a lot of support.
So they're the opportunities that I hope to raise awareness of, to profile and then I suppose to share globally so that others can learn from as well.
Having the champion as an official cop role is really important because it institutionalises the voice of youth in climate decision making and it also means that intergenerational thinking is embedded in part of how we take action on climate change.
So it's not decision makers making decisions for today but rather thinking about what's important for future generations and for their future generations as well.
