UN urges faster climate action as COP31 hosts plan short deal
A senior United Nations official told Pacific leaders that passing the 1.5-degree warming limit is no reason to give up. Talks in Fiji and Tuvalu ended Thursday, and Turkey and Australia said they will draft one main decision for next month's COP31 summit in Antalya. Pacific nations pushed for climate funding and protection from rising seas.
The world is likely to pass the 1.5-degree warming limit, and the United Nations says that should push countries to move faster, not quit.
"Overshoot is not a reason to surrender," U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in Tuvalu this week, UN News reported. "It is a call to accelerate – to make overshoot as short and small as possible and bring temperatures back down below 1.5 as quickly as possible."
She spoke during preparatory talks in Tuvalu and Fiji ahead of COP31, the U.N. climate summit next month in Antalya, Turkey. The goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels comes from the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Mohammed urged countries to keep earlier promises, including the 2023 pledge to move away from fossil fuels, triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030. She also called for more early warning systems and climate funding that small island nations can reach quickly.
The talks ended Thursday with a plan. Turkey and Australia, which share the summit presidency, said they will prepare a single "presidency-led decision" for countries to adopt, Agence France-Presse reported. The idea is to cut down the long fights over technical wording that often slow these summits.
"We feel that a presidency-led decision gives us the best chance of a strong and ambitious outcome at COP31," said Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen. He said the text could recognize that warming will overshoot 1.5 degrees and stress the need to go "further and faster," Climate Home News reported.
Pacific leaders pushed for ocean protection, climate finance and the 1.5-degree goal to be top priorities. Tuvalu is already planning for the possible relocation of its 10,600 residents if rising seas swamp the country, AFP reported.
Some groups want more. "The outcomes of this week's talks are a drop in the ocean given the scale of need," said Shiva Gounden of Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
COP31 President Murat Kurum, Turkey's environment minister, asked: "What good is defending your borders if there is no livable world left?"
What we know: COP31 hosts plan one main summit decision, and the U.N. wants warming overshoot kept short.
What we don't: What the final decision will say and whether countries will agree to it.
Where outlets agree Agence France-Presse and Climate Home News both report that Turkey and Australia will prepare a presidency-led decision for countries to adopt at COP31.
Where they differ The outlets cited here report the same key facts so far.