ANTALYA: The UN’s top climate official urged negotiators at the COP31 conference in Turkiye on Saturday to move swiftly toward a deal and “avoid tactical delays” as the summit heads into its second and final week.
The annual UN climate conference faces new challenges this year as a slew of crises from war to inflation push global warming down the list of priorities for world governments.
“Each country has a view. Every country has a voice. Getting agreement on every word, every sentence is tough but vital work,” Simon Stiell told the summit. “There is no collective success without compromise from every party.”
“As we head into the second week, I urge parties to move swiftly to the hardest issues and to avoid tactical delays.”
Big fossil fuel producers and consumers at the talks are resisting any deal that would specify firm new targets or a shift away from oil, gas and coal, observers said, posing a challenge for summit host Turkiye and lead negotiator Australia to land the kind of ambitious agreement climate advocates say is needed to address global warming.
A UN report last month found the world is already on course to exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming threshold, a limit scientists say should prevent the worst effects of climate change.
