World leaders begin UN climate talks amid concerns action on global warming too slow

World leaders began arriving on Wednesday to start formal discussions at the United Nations climate change conference in Turkey, hoping to agree on concrete actions to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heatwaves and other climate-related disasters.

But what can and will be accomplished at the 11-day Conference of the Parties, called Cop31, remains to be seen.

Past talks have been criticised for making promises that later fell flat, and some big names are missing from this year’s event.

Scientists say global warming is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels from the early 1800s.

Limiting temperature rise to that threshold was a goal set during the 2015 Paris Agreement and has been a focus of international negotiations.

The talks began as the World Meteorological Organisation released its latest State of the Climate report.

It said that 2027 could be the hottest on record, with a strong El Nino expected to bring further extreme heat.

The climate talks come as the war with Iran has increased global prices of petrol, oil and products made with them, such as fertilisers and pesticides.

That has pushed governments to rethink energy policies and investment in renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

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While delegates at the 2023 conference in Dubai agreed to transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas – the leading contributor to climate change – subsequent conferences in Azerbaijan and Brazil ended with little agreement on reductions.

Last year’s Brazil conference produced a compromise agreement pledging additional money to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.

Dozens of leaders will speak during the “high-level segment” taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian.

But observers have pointed to the absence of some, with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit.

While European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is coming to Antalya, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are skipping the event.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi are also absent from the most recent list.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who rarely attends Cops, will be represented by Vice-President Han Zheng.

“We don’t need more promises, we need plans,” said John Kerry, former US secretary of state and former presidential climate envoy, although the US itself, the world’s second-largest polluter after China, is noticeably absent for the second year in a row.

US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, has targeted offshore wind projects and removed rules limiting power plant emissions.

“It is a shame that some of the bigger European leaders aren’t coming. We need Europe to be showing up strongly at this Cop,” said Cosima Cassel, a climate diplomacy expert at think-tank E3G.

Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s top climate official, said the absences of some leaders were “not completely atypical” as they may have “practical” reasons for not being able to attend a summit.

But he also told reporters in Brussels that “expectations are not necessarily high” for this climate conference.

On Tuesday Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg told reporters at the conference in Turkey that Cops had become “greenwashed circuses. That is the reality”.

“Of course it is absolutely crucial that we still do everything we possibly can because this is an opportunity to mobilise people,” she added.

“We are here as activists to push those people in power to actually implement what they have been talking about for decades and decades.”

“The climate disasters that we have seen recently (are) something that scientists and people living on the front lines have been warning about for decades.”

“And we also need to acknowledge that the Cops are not sufficient to prevent a climate catastrophe.”

Many conference participants, who struggled with overcrowded transport links and traffic congestion, set out for the summit venue before sunrise on Wednesday to avoid lengthy delays.

Access was expected to become increasingly difficult as security measures increased and key conference areas were temporarily blocked with the arrival of world leaders.