Arab News | World leaders to address COP31 as Turkiye pushes for new climate deal

ANTALYA, Turkiye: World leaders will set out their climate priorities in speeches at COP31 in Turkiye on Wednesday, as negotiators seek agreement on a plan to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels. Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya as global greenhouse gas emissions show little sign of falling and wars, inflation and other crises compete for political attention.

A UN report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming limit that countries had agreed to pursue under the Paris Agreement to prevent the worst ‌of climate ‌change.

Former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over the 2015 Paris ‌climate conference and leads an advisory council of former COP presidents, said the speeches could give political impetus to the negotiations.

“It is an opportunity for leaders to make some announcements, and more this time, to explain how they will implement, because the key word in Antalya is implementation,” he told Reuters.

Scores of world leaders – including presidents and heads of government – will begin their rapid-fire speeches on Wednesday afternoon and continue through the day on Thursday, according to the COP31 schedule.

Wednesday’s speakers are expected to include Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was re-elected at the end of October, and whose ‌country hosted last year’s climate talks.

European Commission President Ursula von ‌der Leyen, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, and Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine will also speak on Wednesday.

The ‌United States, the world’s largest historical emitter, has skipped the talks for the second year ‌in a row after President Donald Trump – who has called global warming a hoax – withdrew the US from climate cooperation following his return to office in 2025.

Age of electricity?

COP31 host Turkiye has so far been pushing the government representatives attending the conference to put a goal on electrification at the center of a final deal, ‌even as critics say it may do little to curb warming.

The proposal targets a rise in electricity’s share of total global energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035, up from a little over a fifth now, theoretically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars, factories, and buildings.

But the proposal does not include language requiring new power to be generated by clean energy sources, and world governments have yet to clarify a broader plan to transition away from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

“It is long past time to stop treating the transition away from fossil fuels as taboo or intractable,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the conference on Tuesday, urging countries to produce clear timelines for the transition.

The previous COP in Brazil was unable to reach consensus on the need for a global plan to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. The Brazilian COP presidency has in recent weeks, however, published a roadmap aimed at keeping that idea central to the climate negotiations. It asks countries to first plan and assess their energy systems by 2028, then work together to reduce fossil fuel supply from 2031.