This year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP31 or the Climate Summit, began this Monday in Turkey with the aim of tackling global warming and moving forward on consensus regarding financing after a year marked by numerous climate disasters.
The meeting, which has started with a delay of an hour and a half and will run until November 20, brings together delegations from around the world in the coastal city of Antalya to continue developing the implementation of the Paris Agreement, placing adaptation, a just transition, and financing at the core of the discussions.
Turkey serves as the host country and assumes the Presidency of the summit, while Australia will be in charge of piloting the negotiations. During these days, Spain and the European Union will advocate for speeding up the phase-out of fossil fuels and electrification with clean energies, while environmental organizations demand clear commitments and an increase in public funds earmarked for developing countries.
With scientists warning about the advance of global warming and the rise in temperatures, negotiators will have to address key issues such as the future of fossil fuels. In this vein, Turkey has been promoting a strategy to replace an increasing share of global energy consumption with electricity coming from solar and wind sources.
Shortly before the official opening, the UN secretary general António Guterres asked heads of State and Government to "take seriously" the climate situation in order to be able to respond appropriately to the current crisis.
"We have entered a new era of extreme weather events," Guterres said in a statement, in which he urged the international community to "take seriously the idea of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and accelerating the transition." In addition, he called for unlocking the necessary financing to protect "those vulnerable countries that need it."
The talks of this COP31 will also serve to address the disbursement of the funds committed to developing countries, in order to promote renewable energies and strengthen the response in the face of an increasingly unstable and warm planet, hit this year by intense heatwaves, especially in Europe, and by high-impact flooding, such as those recorded in Nepal.
In this context, renewable energies have been gaining prominence on the global agenda, precisely when States face the challenge of meeting the growing energy demand associated with the rise of artificial intelligence.
International participation and a strong security deployment
It is estimated that nearly a hundred world leaders participate in the summit, accompanied by more than 200 ministers. Among them are the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Brazilian head of state, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the UN Secretary-General himself, António Guterres. By contrast, the United States, despite being the largest historical emitter of carbon on a global scale, will not be present at the highest level this year.
The Turkish Ministry of Environment has indicated that at COP31, 196 States Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will be represented, in addition to the European Union.
To ensure the security of the event, Turkish authorities have organized a large-scale deployment with around 26,000 officers deployed, in anticipation that the venue will receive about 8,000 attendees per day, according to data released by the news agency Anatolia.
Throughout their history, COP summits have led to key milestones in global climate action, such as the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement, and have set the direction for international climate policy. In this edition, it is expected that discussions will focus on climate financing, just transition, adaptation, and emissions reductions.
Climate financing, considered essential to meet the goal of limiting the increase in the planet’s average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels, is shaping up as one of the most decisive issues in the negotiations at this COP31.