‘Plenty of reasons for hope’: what 30 years of climate talks have achieved

Résumé détaillé

After 30 years of global climate talks, there has been more progress than you might think. A climate diplomacy expert explains why there’s still reason for hope.

Thousands of delegates, scientists and world leaders are gathered in Turkey for the latest United Nations climate summit, COP31. Their task is familiar: agree on how to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help countries cope with a warming planet.

But after more than three decades of negotiations, global emissions remain stubbornly high and the world is on course to overshoot the critical threshold of 1.5°C of warming. So have these annual summits actually achieved anything?

Dr Wesley Morgan, a climate diplomacy expert at UNSW Sydney, tells The Conversation Weekly podcast the answer is yes:

Agreed in 2015, the treaty brought more than 190 countries together around shared climate goals. Morgan says it has helped shift the trajectory of global warming:

This year’s summit presents a particular diplomatic challenge for Australia because its climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is leading the negotiations.

Morgan says Australia can “tell a very positive story about what’s happening domestically in Australia”, including by pointing to significant strides in rooftop solar, which is now installed on one in three homes.

But Australia’s role as President of Negotiations at COP31 is controversial because Australia remains one of the world’s biggest exporters of coal and gas.

In September, the federal government approved an expansion of BHP’s Saraji coal mine in Queensland, while authorities in New South Wales gave the green light for a major Hunter Valley coal mine to keep operating until 2045.

The negotiations also face a major setback following the Trump administration’s withdrawal in January from international climate cooperation. Yet Morgan notes that no other country has followed the United States out of the talks.

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