COP31 opens with leaders under pressure to tackle climate crisis

The COP31 climate talks kicked off Monday with an early fight over money as the UN’s chief urged world leaders to “get serious” about tackling the crisis after a year of devastating weather extremes. Antonio Guterres made his plea as thousands of participants descended on a sprawling expo centre in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya for the UN’s annual two-week climate conference.

The summit comes after a year of punishing heatwaves in Europe, major wildfires in Indonesia and catastrophic floods in Nepal, with an exceptionally strong El Nino weather phenomenon fuelling more climate chaos. “We have entered a new age of climate extremes,” Guterres said in a statement. The UN secretary-general urged leaders to “get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need”.

The COP31 opening ceremony opened an hour-and-a-half late without explanation. Negotiators had been locked in discussions late Sunday over demands by developing nations to include items on climate finance in the official agenda. “This has already been a difficult start for COP31,” said Jasper Inventor, head of Greenpeace’s COP31 delegation. Under UN climate agreements, developed countries, which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, have provided financial support to help developing nations adapt to climate impacts and transition to cleaner energy.

But poorer countries say the sums remain insufficient. Inventor said developed countries took a “hard line” over whether to include a platform, agreed at COP30 in Brazil last year, aimed at discussing how wealthy nations should provide funds to developing nations. A source familiar with the talks said the “climate finance work programme” would be included in the agenda.

African countries had also pushed for the agenda to include the tripling of adaptation finance, which aims to help poorer nations pay for measures such as building sea walls or planting drought-resistant crops. The source said there would be no separate agenda point on tripling of adaptation finance but that it would be discussed under other items.

A senior European Union official warned last week that there would be “no political will” for extra funding pledges at COP31. Observers say few major breakthroughs are expected at COP31 as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia’s conflict in Ukraine. The long-term climate outlook is bleak: the United Nations warned in September that global temperatures were on course to exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, breaching the most ambitious threshold set by the Paris Agreement. – Fossil fuel fight – Turkey is presiding over COP31, with Australia leading negotiations under an unusual arrangement that settled a dispute over who would host the conference but raised concerns over how it would work.

The two sides have celebrated their cooperation so far, with COP31 President Murat Kurum, who is also Turkey’s environment minister, and Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen raising their clasped hands above their heads to applause during the opening ceremony. The partners have branded the summit as the “implementation COP”, focusing on turning commitments into concrete action after years of pledges and ambitious announcements.

“We know that delay carries one of the heaviest costs in climate action,” Kurum said. Turkey is inviting countries to join a voluntary “electrification” pledge to raise the share of global energy demand met by electricity from around 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035. – ‘Clean’ electrification? – But the initiative could become a source of friction.

The European Union has called for “clean” electrification, a term that could spark debate over the role of oil, gas and coal in the Turkish proposal. Countries committed to transition away from fossil fuels in a landmark pact at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 but have struggled to agree on how to turn that pledge into action. COP30 ended with a deal that made no explicit mention of fossil fuels after oil-producing countries opposed the language.

Instead, Brazil produced a voluntary “roadmap” with proposals for phasing out fossil fuels that each country can tailor to their circumstances. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will be among leaders addressing COP31 later this week, was due to arrive late Monday, fresh from a re-election win that activists hailed as a victory for climate change.

But climate diplomacy is still missing a major player as climate-sceptic US President Donald Trump has not sent officials to COP31. A US congressional delegation, however, will come to Antalya, with Democrats beaming after last week’s historic US midterm election win.