The United Nations climate summit COP31 opened in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya on Monday, with world leaders and negotiators under mounting pressure to turn years of climate promises into concrete action. The two-week conference, which runs until 20 November, is the first COP since the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement earlier this year, and it arrives after a year of punishing heatwaves, wildfires and floods around the world.
Thousands of delegates, ministers, scientists and campaigners gathered at the Antalya Expo Center for the opening ceremony, which began about an hour and a half late without explanation. Türkiye holds the conference presidency for the first time, with Environment Minister Murat Kurum serving as COP31 president, while Australia's Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen leads the formal negotiations under an unusual dual arrangement agreed after both countries bid to host.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged leaders to "get serious" about tackling the climate crisis as the talks began, warning that the world could not afford another round of pledges without delivery. UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell also addressed the opening plenary, calling for strong outcomes on the mandated negotiation items before ministers and heads of state arrive for a World Leaders' Summit on 11 and 12 November.
The summit comes after a year of devastating weather extremes. Europe endured severe heatwaves, major wildfires swept through Indonesia, and catastrophic floods struck Nepal and Tibet, with an exceptionally strong El Niño weather pattern fuelling further chaos. Delegates in Antalya will negotiate against that backdrop, with the UN Environment Programme's 2026 Emissions Gap Report projecting global warming of around 2.6 degrees Celsius this century even if countries fully implement their current climate pledges.
Money is expected to dominate the opening days. An early dispute over finance flared as the conference began, with developing countries pressing richer nations to scale up support for adaptation and for the losses already caused by climate change. With the United States, historically the largest emitter, now outside the Paris Agreement, developing countries are demanding that Europe and other wealthy nations fill the gap in climate finance.
The Turkish presidency has framed COP31 as an "implementation COP", focused on delivery rather than new headline treaties. Its flagship goal is to raise electricity's share of global final energy use from about 23 per cent today to 35 per cent by 2035, accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels and towards clean power. No landmark treaty text is expected from the two weeks of talks; the real test, negotiators say, is whether governments can agree on measurable steps to mobilise finance and speed up the energy transition.
The conference is also taking place in a troubled geopolitical context. French President Emmanuel Macron is not expected to attend the leaders' summit, and the talks opened against a backdrop of intense conflict and trade tensions, including the war in Iran that began at the end of February and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which triggered one of the gravest energy crises in years. Organisers nonetheless hope the summit can send a clear signal that climate action remains a shared global priority.
India arrives in Antalya with a new climate plan and a central seat at the table, co-chairing the consultations on mitigation — the effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Several other delegations are expected to use the summit to present updated national climate plans, while small island states and least-developed countries are pushing for stronger commitments on adaptation funding and on loss and damage.
For Türkiye, hosting COP31 is a moment of diplomatic prestige as well as a logistical challenge, with tens of thousands of participants expected over the two weeks. The presidency has promised that the summit will be remembered as the moment climate pledges finally began to turn into projects, power lines and payments — or, critics warn, as another conference that talked while temperatures kept rising.
Negotiations will continue through the week, with ministers arriving for the high-level segment and the World Leaders' Summit on 11 and 12 November. Any agreements reached in Antalya will then be carried into the next round of talks, but for the delegates gathered on Türkiye's Mediterranean coast, the measure of success will be whether this COP delivers the finance and the clean-energy momentum that vulnerable countries have been waiting for.
