Major leaders missing as COP31 runs in Turkey

World leaders yesterday took the stage at COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, but some prominent names are missing from this year’s annual UN climate summit even as global warming intensifies.

The two-week conference started earlier this week in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, with governments under pressure to tackle the climate crisis after a year of heat waves in Europe, deadly floods in Nepal and major wildfires in Indonesia.

Dozens of leaders are expected to speak during the “high-level segment” taking place yesterday and today, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

A participant dressed as a dinosaur performs during the COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, on Monday.

Photo: AFP

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

While European Commission President 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.

“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.

European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra said the absences were “not completely atypical,” as leaders might have “practical” reasons for not being able to attend a summit.

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

Pezeshkian said he would use the event as an opportunity to express Tehran’s position on environmental destruction in war.

“At this conference, we will speak about the actions of the US and Israel in destroying the environment,” he said before departing for Turkey, Iranian state television reported.

The French government said Macron would be absent, because yesterday was World War I Armistice Day and he is attending an EU summit in Ireland today.

“If top leaders want influence over where the global [energy] transition is going, showing up is a pretty good place to start,” Climate Action Network Europe director Chiara Martinelli said.

“I am afraid that Ursula von der Leyen will be lonely on the stage while the leaders of the biggest EU economies are a no-show,” Martinelli said.

Unsurprisingly, US President Donald Trump, who pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement and has not sent officials to climate talks since his re-election in 2024, is not attending the summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who rarely attends COPs, would be represented by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng (韓正). The US and China are the world’s top economies and biggest emitters of planet-heating emissions, making their presence at climate talks crucial to the process.

“But we have Lula,” Cassel said.

Climate campaigners breathed a huge sigh of relief when Lula, who has championed cutting deforestation rates, defeated right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro in last month’s Brazilian presidential election.