Yeosu eyes COP33 bid despite island expo stumble

Yeosu Mayor Seo Young-hak travels to Turkey to promote city's bid

Yeosu city officials have embarked on a five-day trip to Europe to promote the city's bid to host the 2028 UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP33, which is expected to draw more than 200 countries — even as the 2026 Yeosu World Islands Expo wrapped up to a largely disappointing reception.

Yeosu has been pursuing the COP33 bid since 2008, alongside a coalition of 10 cities and counties across South Jeolla and South Gyeongsang provinces — including Suncheon, Gwangyang, Goheung-gun, Jinju, Sacheon and Hadong — that formed a joint bid committee for the South Sea and South-Central region. City officials describe the current trip as an observational visit to COP31, but the expo's poor turnout has cast doubt on the region's capacity to host major international events, making the road ahead anything but easy.

Mayor Seo Young-hak and his delegation are attending COP31, held in Antalya, Turkey, from Saturday through Wednesday, to monitor international climate policy trends and promote Yeosu's climate and environmental policies as well as its intent to host COP33.

The delegation is touring key venues at the Antalya conference site, examining how existing facilities are used, how spaces are organized, how participant registration and event operations are managed, and what amenities are available — all with an eye toward assessing what it would take to attract an international conference using Yeosu's meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions infrastructure.

COP31 runs from Nov. 9 through Nov. 20 in Antalya, a Mediterranean city in southern Turkey, with more than 190 countries taking part in the two-week conference. Next year's conference, COP32, will be hosted by Ethiopia.

COP33, allocated to the Asia-Pacific region, is scheduled for 2028. Within South Korea, Yeosu is competing against Jeju Island, Goyang in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon for the right to put forward a domestic bid.

"This is an international event that Yeosu has been pursuing since 2008, well before the islands expo, and the case for hosting it is strong," a city official said. "Visiting the COP31 site in Turkey and seeing firsthand how the venue and operations are set up will be a meaningful experience as we prepare our COP33 bid."