Pre-COP is an informal ministerial meeting a few weeks before the conference, where a smaller group of ministers works through the hardest issues in advance. For COP31 it runs from 5 to 8 October 2026, hosted by Fiji, Tuvalu and Australia.
Nothing is formally adopted at a Pre-COP. Its purpose is to find out where the real disagreements sit while there is still time to move, so the presidency arrives in November knowing which fights are live. Watching what ministers say there is the best early read on what the conference will actually be about.
The location this year is a deliberate signal. Australia’s bid for COP31 was made with Pacific partners, and holding the Pre-COP in Fiji with an associated leaders’ event in Tuvalu puts the countries most exposed to sea level rise at the front of the process rather than at the end of it.