COP31 opens with leaders under pressure to tackle climate crisis

Murat Kurum, COP31 President and Turkey’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, gives a speech during the opening session of the COP31 UN Climate Change Conference at the Antalya Expo Center on November 9, 2026. [AFP]

The COP31 climate talks kicked off Monday with an early fight over money as the UN's chief urged world leaders to "get serious" about tackling the crisis after a year of devastating weather extremes.

Guterres made his plea as thousands of participants descended on a sprawling expo centre in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya for the UN's annual two-week climate conference.

The summit comes after a year of punishing heatwaves in Europe, major wildfires in Indonesia and catastrophic floods in Nepal, with an exceptionally strong El Nino weather phenomenon fuelling more climate chaos.

"We have entered a new age of climate extremes," Guterres said in a statement.

He urged leaders to "get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need".

But the COP31 opening ceremony opened an hour-and-a-half late without explanation.

Negotiators had been locked in discussions late Sunday over demands by developing nations to include items on climate finance in the official agenda.

"This has already been a difficult start for COP31," said Jasper Inventor, head of Greenpeace's COP31 delegation.

Under UN climate agreements, developed countries, which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, have provided financial support to help developing nations adapt to climate impacts and transition to cleaner energy. But poorer countries say the sums remain insufficient.

Inventor said developed countries took a "hard line" over whether to include a platform, agreed at COP30 in Brazil last year, aimed at discussing how wealthy nations should provide funds to developing nations.

A source familiar with the talks said the "climate work programme" would be included in the agenda.

African countries had also pushed for the agenda to include discussions on the tripling of adaptation finance, which aims to help poorer nations pay for measures such as building sea walls or planting drought-resistant crops.

The source said there would be no separate agenda point on tripling of adaptation finance but that it would be discussed under other items.

A senior European Union official warned last week that there would be "no political will" for extra funding pledges at COP31.

Observers say few major breakthroughs are expected at COP31 as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia's conflict in Ukraine.

As negotiators tussled in Antalya, the UN's World Meteorological Organization released a report indicating that 2026 has continued a streak of exceptional global temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels.

The long-term outlook is bleak: the UN warned in September that global temperatures were on course to exceed 1.5C above preindustrial levels, breaching the most ambitious threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

- Fossil fuel fight -

Turkey is presiding over COP31, with Australia leading negotiations under an unusual arrangement that settled a dispute over who would host the conference.

The partners have branded the summit as the "implementation COP", focusing on turning commitments into concrete action after years of pledges and ambitious announcements.

Turkey is promoting an "action agenda" alongside the formal negotiations that encourages countries to support non-binding pledges on issues from artificial intelligence to waste management.

Its centrepiece is an "electrification" drive to raise the share of global energy demand met by electricity from around 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035.

But the initiative could become a source of friction.

The European Union has called for "clean" electrification, a term that could spark debate over the role of fossil fuels in the Turkish proposal.

Countries committed to transition away from fossil fuels in a landmark pact at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 but have struggled to agree on how to turn that pledge into action.

COP30 ended with a deal that made no explicit mention of fossil fuels after oil-producing countries opposed the language.

Instead, Brazil produced a voluntary "roadmap" with proposals for phasing out fossil fuels that each country can tailor to their circumstances.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will be among leaders addressing COP31 later this week, was due to arrive late Monday, fresh from a re-election win that activists hailed as a victory for climate change.

But climate diplomacy is still missing a major player as climate-sceptic President Donald Trump has not sent officials to COP31.

A US congressional delegation, however, will come to Antalya, with Democrats beaming after last week's historic US midterm election win.