COP31 opens in Antalya on 9 November as US absence and funding disputes shadow talks

Opening in Antalya

The 31st UN climate conference, COP31, runs in Antalya, Turkey, until 20 November. Representatives of more than 190 countries, along with government officials, scientists, businesses and environmental groups, are due to take part. The opening ceremony was scheduled for 9 November but has been pushed back by one hour, and no official explanation had been given in the reporting. Late on Sunday, 8 November, delegations were still struggling to agree on the agenda for the two weeks of talks. The conference comes ten years after the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, a deal that set the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

A split presidency

Turkey hosts the conference and holds the presidency, with Environment Minister Murat Kurum leading it. Australia is responsible for the formal negotiating process, led by Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen. The arrangement followed a long dispute between the two countries over who would host COP31, and it is described as an unusual compromise among climate conferences. Turkey will steer the Action Agenda and wants the talks to focus on putting already agreed commitments into practice. Its priorities include clean energy, electrifying the economy, cutting methane emissions, resilient cities and financing climate adaptation.

Disputes over agenda and money

Jasper Inventor, head of the Greenpeace delegation, said in a message to AFP that COP31 had begun with difficulties. He said European states refuse to place certain finance issues on the agenda, and that developed-country governments remain immovable on that point. African countries want the agenda to include a tripling of climate adaptation finance, which they say is needed to shield the most vulnerable countries from droughts, floods and rising sea levels. An EU official said on Friday, 6 November, that there was no political will for additional financial commitments. Cyprus is still receiving its invitation, despite Ankara's efforts to exclude Nikos Christodoulides from the event. The United States is absent from the conference, and the mood at the Antalya exhibition park is described as more realism than euphoria. Many describe the conference mainly as an effort to turn earlier commitments into concrete action.

The climate backdrop

The UN warned in September that the planet remains on a path incompatible with the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement. A UN Environment Programme report published in October says the planet is already heading toward exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius. Scientists now consider a temporary overshoot of that threshold highly likely, although limiting its size and duration still lowers the risks to societies, economies and ecosystems. A UN report released on 9 November expects 2026 to rank among the four hottest years ever recorded, driven by a strong El Nino. This year has also brought extreme heatwaves in Western Europe, fires in Indonesia and a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a flood with a death toll above 1,450, while thousands are still reported missing. The energy crisis linked to the war in the Middle East, rising prices and fiscal strain in many countries are holding back climate ambitions.

Electrification and the 1.5 target

The Turkish presidency has set a central goal of electrifying more than a third of the global economy by 2035, a share that currently stands at about a fifth. Countries are being asked to sign on to a commitment supporting that goal. In theory, the target could reduce warming emissions by speeding the shift away from vehicles, burners, boilers and cooking stoves that run on fuel. Simon Stiell, the UN's executive secretary for climate change, told the opening session that the urgency of the moment should push governments into action. He said progress so far is far from fast enough.