ANTALYA: UN chief Antonio Guterres urged world leaders to ‘get serious’ about climate action on Monday as COP31 opened in Turkiye with a dispute over finance and warnings that a powerful El Nino could propel global temperatures to a new record.
‘A supersized El Nino is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change,’ Guterres said, declaring that the world had entered ‘a new age of climate extremes’.
He called for faster emissions cuts, a just transition from fossil fuels and finance and protection for vulnerable countries.
The warning followed European heatwaves and a glacier collapse in Nepal this year that triggered catastrophic flooding.
The World Meteorological Organisation said 2026 was on course to rank among the four hottest years recorded, with January-September temperatures averaging 1.47°C above preindustrial levels. Global sea levels reached a record as glaciers continued to retreat.
Berkeley Earth offered a stronger forecast, telling the BBC it was 95 per cent confident this year would surpass the temperaturerecord setin2024.
With the unusually powerful El Nino releasing heat from already exceptionally warm oceans, WMO chief Celeste Saulo warned that the danger would extend into next year. ‘What we are seeing gives new meaning to the phrase off the charts,’ she told reporters in Geneva.
The El Nino, expected to be the strongest since at least 1950, could push temperatures higher by year-end, with tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures forecast to run as much as 3.8°C above average through January.
‘We should prepare for another recordbreaking year in 2027,’ she said.
The United Nations has warned the world is on course to exceed the 1.5°C Paris Agreement threshold, with the BBC reporting it is on track for about 2.8°C of warming by the end of the century. But turning those warnings into action exposed divisions from the outset of the twoweek summit.
Developing countries pressed for climate finance to feature on the official agenda, with negotiators locked in discussions late on Sunday before Monday’s opening ceremony began 90 minutes late.A climate finance work programme agreed at COP30 was ultimately included, but African countries’ demand for a standalone item on tripling adaptation finance was not met.
Developed countries took a ‘hard line’ on the issue, said Jasper Inventor, head of Greenpeace’s COP31 delegation, calling it ‘a difficult start for COP31’.
Poorer nations say existing support falls short of what they need to protect communities and move towards cleaner energy. Prospects for additional commitments, however, appear limited: a senior European Union official warned last week there would be ‘no political will’ for extra funding pledges.
Against that backdrop, Turkiye and Australia are presenting the gathering as an ‘implementation COP’, intended to turn existing commitments into action.
Under an unusual arrangement resolving their competing bids to host the summit, Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum holds the COP31 presidency while Australia’s Chris Bowen leads negotiations.
‘The urgency of this moment must drive us forward,’ UN climate chief Simon Stiell tolddelegates, saying progress was ‘nowhere near fast enough’.
Turkiye’s main proposalis a voluntary pledge to raise electricity’s share of global energy demand from around 20 per cent to 35 per cent by 2035.
Yet the proposal has opened another fault line: how that electricity would be generated.
The EU wants ‘clean’ electrification, while climate advocates warn that the pledge does not require additional power to come from low-carbon sources. Saudi Arabia and Russia have previously promoted gas as a cleaner alternative to coal.
The disagreement reflects unfinished business from COP28, where countries pledged to transition away from fossil fuels. COP30 ended without explicitly mentioning them in its final deal after opposition from oil-producing nations.
Efforts to advance that commitment now face geopolitical pressures. The US-Iran war has disrupted Middle East oil shipments and raised fuel prices, while Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to complicate energy policy and several Asian nations have turned back to coal.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has sent no administration officials to COP31.
-Agencies/Monitoring Desk