UN leaders urged governments to move faster on climate change mitigation efforts as the two-week COP31 climate summit began in Antalya, Turkey, on Monday.
“No single COP is a silver bullet that can stop climate change overnight. But every recent COP has made essential progress. COP31 in Antalya will, too, Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in prepared remarks ahead of the start of the summit.
Amid the ongoing Strait of Hormuz crisis and the heightened geopolitical uncertainty, leaders and businesses are meeting in Antalya to discuss common pledges to reduce emissions faster, especially by accelerating electrification and actions to slash methane emissions.
“The meeting takes place against the backdrop of an ongoing fossil-fuel cost crisis which has sent energy and transport costs spiraling. Worsening climate disasters are hurting every nation, wrecking lives and hurting human health, pushing up food prices and hunger, the UN’s Stiell said.
“Now more than ever, the climate crisis and its causes are on every kitchen table, hitting every economy and population hard.”
To coincide with the start of the climate summit, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published a report on Monday, which found that 2026 “continues the protracted streak of exceptional global temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels, with a very strong El Niño event set to unleash even more heat and extreme weather well into 2027.”
WMO said that 2026 would be one of four warmest years on record, El Niño events typically lead to a surge in greenhouse gas concentrations, and warned that El Niño typically has the greatest impact on global average temperatures in the year after its development.
“Leaders must get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in comments to the WMO report.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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