Trump’s snubbed COP — but he’s on everyone’s lips

ANTALYA, Turkey — Donald Trump is not at the COP31 climate summit but almost everyone is talking about him — and not in the way he’d like. The U.S. president’s fateful decision to attack Iran earlier this year, sending global oil and gas prices soaring and compounding an international cost of living crisis, has been invoked — directly or indirectly — by leader after leader in Turkey as a reason to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said disruptions on the Strait of Hormuz are “shaking global energy markets.” The U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham invoked the specter of “wars across two continents” that “have sent fuel prices and gas bills soaring for families and businesses across the world.” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres noted how “recent conflicts made clear” that countries’ dependence on imported fossil fuels “is a recipe for chronic insecurity and a cost-of-living meltdown.” “The case for fossil fuels is collapsing,” Gutteres said.

Trump is the name on everyone’s lips for another reason, too.