Fatma VARANK was born in Zonguldak in 1972 and is originally from Trabzon. She graduated from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Trakya University.

She began her career in large-scale housing projects. She served as Project Manager for an 18,000-unit housing project at KİPTAŞ, as Deputy Manager for a 30,000-unit housing project at Emlak Konut GYO, and as a Specialist in TOKİ’s Sulukule Urban Transformation Project in Istanbul.

Between 2011 and 2015, she served as Deputy Director General of Spatial Planning at the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, and she has been serving as Deputy Minister since 2018.

As Türkiye’s Chief Climate Change Negotiator, she led the country’s negotiation process at COP29. She currently serves as CEO of COP31, to be held in Antalya, where she leads an implementation-focused agenda aimed at turning climate commitments into concrete results, projects and investments.