World leaders urge stronger and faster action at UN climate talks

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The leaders are seeking to reach an agreement on concrete steps to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heat waves and other climate-related disasters.

But leaders of some of the world’s biggest polluting nations, including the United States and India, have skipped the summit at Cop31. 

“It really is a disgrace that just one of the seven G7 heads of state and only a handful of G20 leaders are attending this summit,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a climate and energy think tank. 

The mass absence left a handful of national leaders and UN officials to press for action as a new report warned of a widening gap between countries’ climate pledges and actual emissions cuts.

Scientists say global warming is likely to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Limiting warming to that threshold was a goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement and remains a focus of international negotiations.

In his opening speech, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said: “We know the truth. Now we must act on it. 

“Climate action is more than a fight over a number or a thermometer. We are in the fight for our lives and our children’s future.”

Mr Guterres outlined four principles for climate negotiations: ending reliance on fossil fuels, adapting to a warmer world, increasing financial support from wealthy nations to countries coping with climate change, and promoting co-operation over conflict.

He called the framework “a new Climate Justice Compact based on shared responsibility, shared security and shared benefits.”

“We do not need countries to agree on everything. But we do need them to co-operate on the things no country can solve alone,” he said.

Brazil’s newly re-elected president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pledged to protect the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, and urged world leaders to work together for a just, sustainable future.

He said: “Brazil is back to defend the continuity of a healthy planet.” 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan devoted much of his speech to Gaza and the Palestinians.

He said: “What has taken place in Gaza is not only a genocide, but it is also an ecocide.”

He added: “Centuries-old olive trees have been cut down. The soil and water have been polluted in Gaza, and cities in Gaza have been turned into enormous piles of rubble.”

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