Leaders at COP31 warn wars and trade fights are drowning out climate action

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan opened Wednesday's session in Antalya with a call for solidarity, saying wars, migration, famine and poverty make international cooperation more necessary every day. Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country hosted last year's conference, said the conversation had drifted from the survival of future generations to weapons and tariffs, warning the planet cannot sit at the mercy of hegemonic struggles. Heads of state keep taking the stage through Thursday.

At the centre of the negotiations is a Turkish plan to get electricity to 35% of global energy use by 2035; it sits at a little over 20% now. Nearly 200 countries are weighing that proposal while trying to revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels. Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, argued the other way, saying climate measures should not become barriers that stop countries from achieving economic development.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told leaders the response so far has put the world on a path to destruction. "The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us," he said, flagging rising emissions, higher global temperatures and worsening disasters.

The top table is noticeably empty. The United States, the biggest historical emitter, has skipped the talks a second year running after President Donald Trump, who has called global warming a hoax, withdrew the country from climate cooperation in 2025. France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada also sent no top leaders. Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank, said the world's largest economies should be leading the response rather than leaving it to others.

The backdrop is grim. A UN report last month found the world on course to breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit countries agreed to pursue under the Paris Agreement. This year delivered heatwaves across Western Europe and a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a flood killing more than 1,450 people, with thousands still missing.

Former French prime minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over the 2015 Paris conference, told Reuters the speeches should give the negotiations political impetus, and that the keyword in Antalya is implementation. Oil is part of the pressure: the US and Israeli war on Iran this year disrupted Middle East crude shipments and sent fuel prices soaring, pushing climate down the priority list for some governments.