Leaders warn COP31: War, conflict must not distract from climate action

ANTALYA: Wars and trade disputes should not be allowed to distract the world from its struggle to combat global warming, the leaders of Brazil and Turkey told the COP31 climate conference on Wednesday.

The comments on the third day of the annual UN summit came at the start of back-to-back speeches by world leaders that are meant to pave the way for negotiators to find a fresh deal to advance the international fight against climate change.

“A year ago, the planet left COP30 invigorated… (but) this momentum has dropped off at the start of this year. Climate change disappeared from the speeches and documents from global leadership,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country hosted last year’s conference, told the summit.

READ ALSO: World leaders to address COP31 as Turkiye pushes for new climate deal

“We started talking more about weapons and tariffs than the survival of future generations,” he said. “The planet cannot be in the mercy of hegemonic struggles.”

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan echoed the comment.

“Wars, crises, migration, famine and poverty increase the need for international solidarity each day,” he said.

OIL SUPPLY DISRUPTION

The US and Israeli war on Iran this year has disrupted Middle East crude oil shipments and sent fuel prices soaring around the globe, triggering a scramble for reliable supplies.

Those dynamics have pushed global warming down the list of urgent priorities for some governments, even as climate advocates argue they make the perfect case for a more rapid adoption of clean energy alternatives to oil.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are seeking agreement at COP31 on a proposal from Turkey to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders earlier in the day that the slow international response to climate change so far had placed the world on a path to destruction, and that fast action was needed to avert it.

“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. This is the path to mutually assured destruction,” Guterres said, pointing to rising emissions, global temperatures and worsening climate-driven disasters.

YEAR OF EXTREME WEATHER

A UN report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming limit that countries had agreed to pursue under the Paris Agreement to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Meanwhile, 2026 has also stood out with a series of extreme heatwaves across Western Europe and a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a catastrophic flood killing more than 1,450 people, with thousands still missing.

Former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over the 2015 Paris climate conference and leads an advisory council of former COP presidents, said the leaders’ speeches should give political impetus to the negotiations.

“It is an opportunity for leaders to make some announcements, and more this time, to explain how they will implement, because the key word in Antalya is implementation,” he told Reuters.

Wednesday’s speakers are scheduled to include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, and Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, among scores of others.

Many nations will not be represented, though.

The United States, the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has skipped the talks for the second year in a row after President Donald Trump – who has called global warming a hoax – withdrew the US from climate cooperation following his return to office in 2025.

Other G7 countries France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada did not send their top leaders to the talks this year.

“The world’s biggest economies should be leading the response to the climate crisis, not leaving it to others,” said Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy think tank, Power Shift Africa.