The United Nations climate summit kicks off on Monday with the mission of accelerating emissions reductions and financing the adaptation of developing countries, which receive only a tenth of what they need.
The 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) will take place from November 9 to 20 in the Turkish city of Antalya and will have two phases: negotiations among governments and the Action Agenda.
In the Action Agenda, the Turkish presidency defined ten priorities: the transition to clean energy and electrification, zero waste and methane reduction, urban resilience, green industrialization, youth and education, food security, the oceans and seas, resilience of health systems and the coordination between climate, biodiversity and desertification combat policies.
In the tenth priority, the aim is to link national climate projects with funders and technical partners.
Among the voluntary targets for 2035 proposed by the COP31 presidency, shared by Turkey and Australia, are raising the share of electricity in global energy consumption from 23% to 35%, halving the pace of growth of global waste production, and reducing by at least 25% the energy intensity of buildings.
Turkey hosts the conference and assumes the presidency, led by Environment Minister Murat Kurum, while Australia leads the negotiations, under Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.
The leaders’ summit will be held between Wednesday and Thursday.
In a joint letter released on October 5, Turkish and Australian officials stressed that they want to see progress on emission reductions, adaptation to climate impacts, financing, and a just transition.
In Antalya also begins the second Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement, which will assess the collective progress of countries and should be completed by 2028.
The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015 at COP21, aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
Even if countries fully meet their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), global emissions would fall by only 11% to 15% by 2035, compared with 2025, according to the UN, which argues that the cut needed to return to 1.5°C by the end of the century would be 45%.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimated this week that developing countries need around $305 billion (€272 billion) per year until 2035 to protect themselves from droughts, floods, heatwaves and other climate impacts.
In 2024, the last year with available data, international public financing for adaptation stood at between $28.2 billion and $31.7 billion, according to the report released on Wednesday.
Even if the COP30 target to triple this financing by 2035 is realized, the resources would cover only between 20% and 29% of UNEP’s estimated needs.
In negotiations starting on Monday, the realization of climate finance agreed in 2024 at COP29 in Baku is also at stake: mobilizing at least $300 billion annually for developing countries by 2035.
The agreement also calls for an effort to raise financing from public and private sources to $1.3 trillion annually, also by 2035.
The pressure to accelerate emission cuts has also intensified.
In an October report, UNEP concluded that global warming is projected to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Limiting the peak to 1.7°C or 1.8°C and returning to 1.5°C by the end of the century would require cutting global emissions by 18% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 69% by 2040, relative to 2025, and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at scale.
Even if all countries fully meet their current climate commitments, the reductions of emissions by 2035 would be only 11% to 15%, according to the same report.
In parallel, the Brazilian presidency of COP30 brings to Antalya two roadmaps presented on Tuesday in BrasÃlia: one proposes measures to accelerate the abandonment of fossil fuels in energy systems, such as reducing tax incentives and replacing their use in transport, in industry and in buildings with low-emission alternatives.
The other proposes to curb and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, with national measures, international cooperation and financing.
