COP31 opens with calls to accelerate climate action

Climate · First reported 8 Nov, 07:21 · Updated 08:10

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Fikkar Bonggi · CC BY-SA 4.0

COP31 began in Turkey with leaders urging faster action on climate change. Coverage highlights the summit’s proposed electrification goal, warnings about the 1.5°C target and the ways wars and AI are adding pressure to energy and climate discussions.

COP31 opened in Antalya on November 9, with leaders calling for faster action as temperatures rise and climate-related disasters threaten lives and the economy.
Turkey’s presidency is seeking support for a pledge to electrify more than a third of the global economy by 2035; climate advocates object that it does not require the added electricity to be low-carbon.
The UN chief says the 1.5°C goal is no longer achievable, while a UN report cited in another account says the world is already set to overshoot that threshold.
Reports connect the climate talks to energy security concerns arising from wars, and to rising power demand and emissions associated with AI.
The UN chief called for fossil-fuel companies’ windfall profits to be taxed to support countries facing severe climate impacts.