Representatives of successive climate summit presidencies met at the United Nations headquarters in New York ahead of COP31, which opens in Antalya, Türkiye, on November 9.
UN General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman warned that intensifying climate disasters, including recent devastation in Nepal, demonstrated the human cost of delayed action. “Scientists had long warned that such events were becoming a reality, yet none of us were prepared for the shocking footage,” Rahman said.
A strengthening El Niño weather pattern could become one of the most severe recorded since 1950.
“COP31 must be more than another negotiating milestone,” Rahman said. “It must demonstrate that multilateralism delivers.”
Türkiye plans to use the conference to accelerate clean energy, reduce methane emissions and strengthen climate resilience.
The Climate Implementation Bridge, developed with the United Nations Development Programme, aims to convert national climate commitments into investment-ready projects and connect them with financing.
“The issue is not simply the overall volume of finance,” Türkiye Permanent Representative to the UN Ahmet Yıldız said. “It is also whether finance is available, accessible, affordable and predictable.”
Australia, which is leading negotiations under a shared COP31 arrangement with Türkiye, called for stronger adaptation plans informed by science and community needs.
Brazil identified three priorities: implementing the new just-transition mechanism, improving measurement of adaptation progress and increasing climate investment in heavily indebted developing countries. “In a world of states with severe fiscal constraints and high indebtedness, the finance talks need to lead to viable solutions for expanding fiscal space for climate investment,” Brazil Permanent Representative to the UN Sérgio França Danese said.
Ethiopia, which will host COP32, warned that unequal access to finance and technology was determining which countries benefited from the energy transition.
Africa contributes about 3% of global greenhouse-gas emissions but faces some of the most severe climate effects. “Delayed action carries a compounding cost for developing countries,” Ethiopia Permanent Representative to the UN Tesfaye Yilma Sabo said.
World leaders will meet in Antalya on November 11 and November 12. “Let COP31 be judged not by promises we repeat, but by the people we protect,” Rahman said.
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
