UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders to "get serious" on climate change as the COP31 climate summit opened on Monday in Antalya, Turkey, amid an early dispute over climate finance.
According to Dawn (PK), Guterres called on leaders to "get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need." Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, said in prepared remarks that progress so far was "nowhere near fast enough," according to SCMP (HK).
The finance dispute centres on developing nations’ demands to include climate finance items on the official agenda. According to Dawn (PK), negotiators were still in discussions late Sunday over those demands.
Jasper Inventor, head of Greenpeace’s COP31 delegation, said developed countries were "taking a hard line" over including a COP30 finance platform on the agenda, according to the Straits Times (SG). Dawn (PK) reported that a senior EU official warned last week there would be "no political will" for extra funding pledges at COP31.
The opening ceremony also started late. Accounts differ on how long the delay was. Dawn (PK) says the ceremony opened an hour and a half late without explanation, while the Straits Times (SG) says it was delayed by an hour without explanation. No official reason for the delay has been reported.
Turkiye’s proposed centrepiece is an "electrification" drive, which aims to raise electricity’s share of global energy demand from around 20% today to 35% by 2035, according to the Straits Times (SG). Reports also flag a possible point of friction over whether electrification should be "clean," though no official EU statement on that question has been quoted.
For context, COP30 in Brazil ended without an explicit mention of fossil fuels after oil-producing countries opposed the language, and Brazil produced a voluntary "roadmap" instead. Turkiye holds the COP31 presidency, while Australia leads negotiations under an arrangement that settled a dispute over who would host. The UN warned in September that global temperatures were on course to exceed 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and the World Meteorological Organization said 2026 continued a streak of exceptional temperatures.
Negotiations continue over the two-week conference. The finance agenda item is unresolved, and the Turkish electrification proposal and the EU’s concerns about clean electrification remain open. A US congressional delegation is also due in Antalya.
Several gaps remain. Neither Dawn nor the Straits Times gives the amounts developed countries have provided or the size of the finance gap. There was no response from the Turkish presidency or Australia on the finance agenda dispute. SCMP was available only as a headline and short excerpt, so its account of the opening is limited, and the Greenpeace comments rely on a single outlet.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.