COP31 faces tough test as climate threats mount

Nearly 200 countries are set to gather in Turkey on Monday for the COP31 climate summit, but tensions over geopolitics, climate finance and fossil fuels are tempering expectations of a major breakthrough in the fight against climate change. More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the UN’s two-week climate negotiations in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. Stronger action to phase out fossil fuels, the main driver of climate change, appears unlikely.

Meanwhile, financially constrained developed countries are reluctant to commit additional funds to help developing nations cope with the impacts of climate change. An energy crisis and rising cost-of-living pressures, fuelled by the war in the Middle East, are also casting a shadow over the gathering. “This is not going to be the COP that changes the world,” said Paul Watkinson, France’s former chief negotiator at climate summits.

“It’s an intermediate COP in many ways. But it is an important conference and it does need to make sure it makes progress,” he said.