‘Implementation COP’ must live up to its name

The Nepal floods should be proof enough that countries that have contributed least to global emissions face the steepest costs of disasters, with inadequate resources to recover and rebuild. The Loss and Damage Fund must be backed by predictable and sufficient financing.

COP31 should find ways to narrow the gap between commitments and delivery.

3 min readNov 9, 2026 06:39 AM IST First published on: Nov 9, 2026 at 06:39 AM IST

The organisers of COP31, which opens in Antalya, Türkey, have billed the event as the “Implementation COP”. The last climate COP in Belém, Brazil, carried the same description. COP30 did, to an extent, live up to that billing by securing outcomes on climate finance, adaptation and the transition away from fossil fuels, even though it fell short of the ambition required to keep global warming within the 1.5°C limit set at Paris. In the year since Belem, the challenge has become considerably more daunting. Catastrophic floods, deadly heat waves, and prolonged droughts have become increasingly common, while the near inevitability of the world overshooting the 1.5°C threshold underscores the inadequacy of existing commitments. The threat of a super El Niño intensifying extreme weather events adds to the crisis. The focus must now be on making climate action deliver tangible results, particularly for nations that lack the resources to undertake it.

Mitigation remains central to this effort. The transition to clean energy is being increasingly bedevilled by unequal access to finance, technology and infrastructure. Solar power, electric vehicles and battery storage are becoming more cost-efficient, but their adoption remains uneven. Emerging and developing economies outside China, which account for nearly two-thirds of the world’s population, received just 18 per cent of global clean-energy investment in 2025. Africa, despite its vast renewable energy potential, attracts only a fraction of these, while nearly 600 million people on the continent still lack electricity. Renewable energy projects in developing countries cost several times more to finance than those in wealthier economies. High borrowing costs and mounting public debt limit their capacity to invest in the transition. The principle of a just shift towards green energy must, therefore, acquire greater substance. Developing countries and emerging economies such as India cannot be expected to abandon fossil fuels at the same pace as advanced economies without adequate support. COP31 must address the barriers that prevent countries from deploying clean energy at scale, rather than simply urging them to raise their targets.

Even ambitious mitigation cannot eliminate the need to prepare for climate impacts that are already unfolding. Adaptation finance, early-warning systems, resilient infrastructure and protection for vulnerable communities is indispensable. The issue of loss and damage, too, cannot remain confined to declarations of concern. The Nepal floods should be proof enough that countries that have contributed least to global emissions face the steepest costs of disasters, with inadequate resources to recover and rebuild. The Loss and Damage Fund must be backed by predictable and sufficient financing. COP31 should find ways to narrow the gap between commitments and delivery.