COP31: Divergences in climate finance in action conference

A 31st UN climate conference (COP31) began today in Turkey, after a year marked by floods and heat waves, with frictions about the funds needed to adapt and mitigate the climate emergency.

The leaders “should be up to it,” urged UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement.

“ We know that any delay weighs particularly on climate action.”, stressed the President of the conference, Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum, during the opening session of COP31.

Between deadly floods in Nepal, heat waves in Europe and fires in Indonesia, climate change hit the planet once again in 2026.

At the same time, the energy crisis, fuelled by the war in the Middle East, is pushing prices and creating significant budgetary difficulties for governments, weakening climate ambition.

In the vast exhibition centre of the Turkish coastal city of Antalia, a conference is mainly intended to translate the commitments made in previous editions of the UN meeting into concrete actions.

The Minister of Environment and Energy of Portugal, Maria da Graça Carvalho, has already called at times for COP31 to be an action conference.

COP31, which brings together almost 200 countries under the auspices of the UN and for which 68,544 participants are accredited, should be the “implementation” conference of promises, Murat Kurum said.

Delegations negotiated the conference agenda at dawn today. The main point of disagreement: the funding that developed countries, historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, have promised to provide to developing countries.

A European Union official had already indicated on Friday that there was no political will to increase expenditure.

It is a “hard start” for COP31, said Jasper Inventor, head of the delegation of the international environmental organization Greenpeace, advancing that developed countries refused, in particular, to include certain funding items on the agenda.

The “Climatic Financing Work Programme”, a mechanism decided at COP30 in Brazil in 2025 to discuss financing agreements, will finally be officially debated. But not the triplication of funding for adaptation to climate change, which is essential to protect the most vulnerable countries from drought, flooding or rising sea level.

In view of the increasingly severe impacts of global warming climate change, developing countries will need USD 305 billion per year by 2035, almost ten times as much as they currently receive from rich nations, the UN indicated last week. On this issue, “the frustration is palpable”, acknowledged UN Climate Change Officer Simon Stiell.

Another non-consensual issue is that Turkey wants to make electrification a central issue of COP31, proposing that countries commit themselves to increasing the share of electricity in global energy consumption to 35% by 2035 compared to the current 20%.

The European Union advocates electrification with renewable sources. Maria da Graça Carvalho also said so. But several hydrocarbon-producing countries are reluctant to accept.

The COP30, which took place in Belém, Brazil, ended without any explicit mention of fossil fuels. Instead, Brazil presented a “roadmap” last week for countries that wish to voluntarily replace oil, coal and gas with renewable energy.

At a summit with the presidency divided between Turkey and Australia, the Australian Minister for Climate Change, Chris Bowen, urged delegations to overcome differences and demonstrate that international cooperation can still bring results.

“ Let us show the world that multilateralism works”, he defended in the opening of the conference, boycotted by the US Government due to the denial of climate change by President Donald Trump.