The UN today urged governments to accelerate the energy transition and protect the most vulnerable countries from the effects of global warming at the opening of the UN’s 31st Conference on Climate Change (COP31) in Turkey.
“COP31 must promote solutions firmly,” said the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, at the start of the meeting, which brings together representatives from nearly 200 countries until November 20 in the city of Antalya.
The official noted that previous summits served to “send signals,” such as establishing global targets and guiding policy and economic decisions, stressing that, given that global warming is outpacing efforts to contain it, it is now necessary to turn commitments into tangible results.
“Progress is far from fast enough or fair,” warned the UN representative, who urged COP31 to accelerate the implementation of agreements through practical measures.
He pointed to priorities: tripling the global renewable energy capacity by 2030, expanding the growth of electricity networks, reducing methane emissions, and facilitating access to climate finance.
Stiell said that coupling electrification and methane reduction could reduce projected global warming by half a degree Celsius, and he underscored that 90% of large renewable energy projects are already cheaper than their fossil-fuel-based alternatives.
He also called for progress on the commitment to triple funding for adaptation, agreed last year at the previous summit in Brazil, noting that financing remains one of the most controversial issues in negotiations between developed countries and developing economies.
“A deep injustice threatens our solidarity and collective progress,” he warned, noting that the most vulnerable populations are the ones most affected by the consequences of global warming.
COP31 is taking place under an unprecedented arrangement: Turkey holds the formal presidency, while Australia leads the negotiations, which require the consensus of the participating countries.
At the opening of the conference, the two leaders — Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum and Australian Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen — urged greater international cooperation in the face of global warming, in a world divided by wars, trade tensions and economic inequalities that hinder a coordinated response to a crisis affecting all countries, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
Kurum warned that international crises feed back into and worsen the consequences of global warming, especially for the most vulnerable populations, giving the example that a drought can affect food prices on other continents and that water scarcity impacts economies, migration, and security.
The Turkish minister argued that COP31 should serve to rebuild international trust, considering that “trust is also infrastructure for climate action,” while Chris Bowen urged that the world be shown “that multilateralism works.”
Kurum summed up the Turkish presidency’s ambition in three principles: “Dialogue, consensus and action.”
