COP31 turns to negotiations

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World leaders have set out competing positions and made clashing demands in two days of intense speech-making at the COP31 climate change talks in Turkey, leaving negotiators with…

World leaders have set out competing positions and made clashing demands in two days of intense speech-making at the COP31 climate change talks in Turkey, leaving negotiators with a tough task to draft a meaningful deal that all can agree.

Small island states, among the most vulnerable in the world as global warming makes sea levels rise, pleaded for urgent cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

They aim to create a fund backed by a charge on money that islanders receive from abroad to eventually raise around $3 billion a year for projects to make their nations less vulnerable to climate change.

“We decided that there had to be a way that we can guarantee more reliable sources of funding for the islands,” Antigua and Barbuda’s UN ambassador Walton Webson said. “We cannot rely solely on development assistance again.”

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said on the sidelines of the UN conference: “The situation could not be less under control. The planet is not dying. It is being killed. It is being killed by the very same people often thought to come to our rescue. No one is coming to our rescue.”

European leaders, meanwhile, lined up behind a proposal to expand global electrification, developing countries asked for more finance from rich ones, and fossil fuel producers said oil, gas, and coal should continue to be used.

“We reaffirm our sovereign right to strengthen our energy and oil industry as a driver of our national development,” Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez told the conference, after UN leaders had made the case for bringing to an end the age of fossil fuel.

Apart from trying to accommodate incompatible national positions aired on Wednesday and Thursday, conference host Turkey and negotiations lead Australia also have the challenge of trying to make progress when wars and inflation have pushed climate concerns down the political agenda.

“It’s my job to steer consensus, not to bang tables and demand any particular action, but to steer consensus to the…

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