{"id":4067,"date":"2026-11-09T13:04:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T08:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4067"},"modified":"2026-11-09T13:04:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T08:04:05","slug":"cop31-leaders-urge-faster-action-as-climate-threats-intensify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4067","title":{"rendered":"COP31 leaders urge faster action as climate threats intensify"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Leaders of the COP31 climate summit urged the world to accelerate the fight against global warming \u200bas rising temperatures and an increasing number of climate-driven disasters threaten lives and the global economy, as the annual meeting began in Turkey on Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u200c<\/strong>The comments at the start of the two-week UN conference were an appeal to governments to focus on climate, even as other international crises from war to soaring inflation and the uncertainty of AI compete for their attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe urgency of this moment must drive us forward,\u201d UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in prepared remarks for the opening of the event on Turkey\u2019s Mediterranean coast, adding that \u200bprogress so far was \u201cnowhere near fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme<\/u><\/a> published in October said the world was already set to overshoot 1.5C of \u200bwarming above pre-industrial times, the threshold set at the 2015 Paris climate summit to avoid the worst consequences of warming.<\/p>\n

This year is on track \u2060to be one of the four hottest on record, driven by a powerful El Ni\u00f1o<\/u><\/a>, a UN report showed<\/u><\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

The year 2026 has also stood out with a series of extreme heatwaves \u200bacross Western Europe and a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a catastrophic flood<\/u><\/a> killing more than 1,450 people, with thousands still missing<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s COP31 presidency has focused this year\u2019s summit on a goal to electrify \u200bmore than a third of the global economy by 2035, up from around a fifth today.<\/p>\n

It is asking nations to sign onto a pledge<\/u><\/a> supporting that target.<\/p>\n

Theoretically, such a goal could help reduce planet-warming emissions by speeding the global shift away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles, furnaces, boilers, cooking stoves, and other greenhouse gas-emitting equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want people to feel the results of climate talks in daily life: in buildings that use less \u200benergy, in clean public transport, in energy they can afford and in new jobs,\u201d Turkey\u2019s COP31 President Murat Kurum said in prepared remarks.<\/p>\n

But climate advocates have criticised the pledge \u200bbecause it does not require the additional electricity to come from low-carbon sources, setting up an early fight over whether electrification alone should count as climate progress.<\/p>\n

<\/a>War and tech<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Iran war has underscored \u200cthe world\u2019s attachment \u2060to fossil fuels, as has Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions on Moscow\u2019s energy exports, though some say the wars have also shown the benefits of moving to renewables.<\/p>\n

The Iran war, now in its ninth month, severely disrupted Middle East oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting fuel prices around the globe and prompting a scramble for new supplies.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration \u2014 which is shunning climate talks for the second year running \u2014 has encouraged policies maximising oil, gas, and coal production to address the Middle East disruptions.<\/p>\n

South Korea, India, Thailand and other Asian \u200bnations, meanwhile, have also increased their reliance on coal \u200bor taken steps to boost coal-fired power \u2060generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people who previously might have been embarrassed to argue for continuing very high use of fossil fuels are now feeling empowered to make that case,\u201d said John Holdren of Harvard University, who was a science adviser to Barack Obama when he was US \u200bpresident.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the deployment of renewable energy has also risen, driven by surging exports of cheap clean tech from China<\/u><\/a>, \u200bcheering advocates for ambitious climate \u2060action.<\/p>\n

Stiell told the summit renewables were the clear answer to improving energy security.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s fossil fuel cost chaos has delivered a global shockwave, hitting households hard and spreading inflation like a cancer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the solutions are clear,\u201d he added, saying renewable energy installations had saved the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

The rapid rollout of AI is also complicating talks, driving a surge in \u2060global power demand<\/u><\/a> \u200band contributing to rising greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

Turkey will call on governments, businesses and other institutions at COP31 \u200bto sign a pledge<\/u><\/a> outlining principles to ensure AI is developed and deployed sustainably.<\/p>\n

Chris Bowen, Australia\u2019s president of COP31 negotiations, said he hoped the conference would show the world that multilateralism works.<\/p>\n

\u201cParis is working,\u201d he said, referring to \u200bthe landmark 2015 deal to limit global warming. \u201cBut we must move faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaders of the COP31 climate summit urged the world to accelerate the fight against global warming \u200bas rising temperatures and an increasing number of climate-driven disasters threaten lives and the global economy, as the annual meeting began in Turkey on Monday. \u200cThe comments at the start of the two-week UN conference were an appeal to governments to focus on climate, even as other international crises from war to soaring inflation and the uncertainty of AI compete for their attention. \u201cThe urgency of this moment must drive us forward,\u201d UN Climate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}