ANTALYA, Turkey – Leaders at the COP31 summit in Turkey are trying out a new sales pitch for climate action that is tailored to the times: do it to bolster the economy and bring down the cost of living.
The message, being repeated in the hallways and on the plenary stage of the annual UN conference, reflects efforts by organizers to capture the attention of governments wrestling with crises that have pushed global warming down the list of priorities.
Among those is rampant inflation driven in part by disruptions to Middle East crude oil shipments since the onset of the Iran war. Consumer price pressures from fuel to food were a major driver in the US midterm elections that handed control of Congress to Democrats, and are an important vulnerability for leaders across Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
“Three-quarters of humanity live in countries that import fossil fuels, hostage to price shocks they did not create and cannot control,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders attending the summit on Wednesday, November 11.
“Recent conflicts make clear that this is a recipe for chronic insecurity and a cost-of-living meltdown,” he added, saying the clear solution is a shift to renewable energy.
Simon Stiell, head of the UN’s climate office, made the same point.
