COP31 opens with leaders under pressure

The COP31 climate conference yesterday started with an early fight over money as the UN head urged world leaders to “get serious” about tackling the crisis after a year of devastating weather extremes.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made his plea as thousands of participants descended on a sprawling expo center in the Mediterranean city of Antalya for the annual two-week climate conference.

The summit comes after a year of punishing heat waves in Europe, major wildfires in Indonesia and catastrophic floods in Nepal, with an exceptionally strong El Nino weather phenomenon fueling more climate chaos.

Delegates from Kazakhstan pose for photographs by their pavilion on the opening day of the COP31 UN climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, yesterday.

Photo: EPA

“We have entered a new age of climate extremes,” Guterres said in a statement.

He 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 opening ceremony was delayed for 90 minutes without explanation.

Negotiators late on Sunday were locked in discussions 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. Poorer countries say the sums remain insufficient.

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, Inventor said.

The “climate finance work program” was ultimately 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.

However, that point was not made a standalone agenda item.

A senior EU official last week said that there would be “no political will” for extra funding pledges at COP31.

Observers expect few major breakthroughs at COP31 as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fueled by the US war with Iran and Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.

The long-term climate outlook is bleak. The UN in September said that global temperatures were on course to exceed 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, breaching the most ambitious threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

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 Minister for Climate Change and Energy 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 about 20 percent to 35 percent by 2035.