COP31 climate talks kick off in Antalya amid extreme weather pressures
Delegates from across the world are gathering in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20 for the COP31 UN climate conference, hosted by Turkey and led by Australia. The talks open under severe pressure following a summer of European droughts, wildfires, and record-low waterways, as well as an August rock-ice avalanche in Nepal and Tibet that triggered flash floods killing over 1,400 people. With the UN concluding that capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius is no longer achievable, delegates face the unresolved challenge of phasing out fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
Despite rising emissions, previous diplomacy has yielded progress. David Victor, a climate expert at the University of California San Diego, noted that prior to the 2015 Paris Agreement, the planet faced a 3 to 3.5 degrees Celsius temperature surge, whereas current commitments could limit warming to 2.6 degrees Celsius. However, Victor warned that COP’s unanimity rule and geopolitical friction frequently stall sweeping consensus, making smaller alliances of governments and companies more effective vehicles for sector-specific decarbonization. In response, hosts Turkey and Australia are focusing on clean energy transition, aiming to lift electricity's share of global energy consumption from roughly 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035.
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