Delegates, lobbyists, and journalists have gathered in Antalya, Turkey, for this year’s UN climate negotiations. COP31 kicked off on November 8 and is scheduled to conclude on November 20, with Turkey and Australia serving as cohosts. Known as the “Conference of the Parties,” the annual summit is often a barometer for how the world is handling the climate crisis, and this year’s talks are expected to be especially contentious, with heated debate over fossil fuels and climate finance.
The atmosphere is tense for several reasons. The ongoing war in Iran has disrupted the Middle East and sent energy prices soaring worldwide. This is also the second consecutive COP without a formal US delegation, after President Trump withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement and began the process of exiting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty that enables formal participation in negotiations. Meanwhile, the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels appears increasingly out of reach. A September report from the UN Environment Programme warned that the world is likely to exceed that threshold within the next few years.
Funding remains a central flashpoint. Two years ago, negotiators agreed to mobilize $300 billion annually by 2035 to support emissions reductions and climate adaptation, though wealthy nations provided $136.7 billion in 2024, according to the OECD. Last year’s COP30 agreement called for tripling adaptation finance by 2035, even as such funding has stagnated. The stakes were underscored earlier this year when a glacier collapse in the Himalayas killed roughly 1,500 people, left more than 5,000 missing, and caused nearly $5 billion in damage. The UN loss and damage fund pledged $20 million to Nepal’s recovery, covering less than 1 percent of the estimated cost.
The fossil fuel debate will also be closely watched. The COP28 agreement explicitly called for a transition away from fossil fuels, but last year’s final text did not mention them at all. Both cohosts have faced criticism on this front: Australia is a major coal and gas exporter, and Turkey’s electricity grid depends heavily on fossil fuels. Outside the formal negotiations, COP31 president Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister, is promoting voluntary initiatives. One pledge aims to make artificial intelligence more sustainable, though it explicitly creates no new obligations for signatories. Another urges countries to increase electricity’s share of total energy use to 35 percent by 2035, up from about 23 percent today, which could help cut emissions if the electricity comes from clean sources. Leadership has branded this an “implementation COP,” and observers will be looking for tangible progress rather than sweeping breakthroughs.
Source: What to know about this year’s UN climate talks via MIT Technology Review