The COP31 climate conference began this Monday in the Turkish city of Antalya with a call from Turkey and the UN to accelerate the electrification of the economy, reduce methane emissions and facilitate climate financing, an issue that has been controversial in previous editions.

First modification: 11/09/2026 - 17:45

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World leaders, delegates and climate activists opened the Conference of the Parties or COP31 in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Turkey, on Monday, November 9, with electrification, reducing methane emissions and financing for least developed countries at the center of the debate.

One of the first to speak was UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, who focused his environmental solutions on tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030, expanding electricity grids, reducing methane emissions and facilitating access to climate finance.

The combination of electrification and methane reduction would be "an ice pack for the planet," in the words of Stiell, who maintains that this formula could cut half a degree of projected global warming.

The UN delegate highlighted that 90% of large renewable energy projects are already cheaper than their fossil fuel-based alternatives. This generation model, he explained, saved around half a trillion dollars last year in the world and another 265 billion during the first half of 2026.

"Meanwhile, this year's fossil fuel price chaos has sent shockwaves around the world, hitting households hard and spreading inflation like a cancer," Stiell said.

Along the same lines, the Turkish COP31 presidency based its proposal on electrifying 35% of the global economy by 2035, compared to approximately 20% currently. Ankara is asking countries to sign a commitment that supports that goal.

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The Iran war, which began after the US and Israeli attacks on February 28, highlighted the world's dependence on fossil fuels, highlighting the benefits of the transition to renewable energy.

The German Environment Minister, Carsten Schneider, interpreted this Monday the fossil fuel crisis, accelerated by the conflict in the Middle East, as an opportunity to promote "electrification" with the aim of reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Por ello, demostró el apoyo de Berlín a la propuesta de la presidencia turca de elevar al 35 % la participación de la electricidad en el consumo mundial de energía para 2035.

However, the proposal for the transition from fossil fuels to electrification faces some state policies of governments such as that of the American Donald Trump, who has promoted the maximization of oil, gas and coal production. Likewise, South Korea, India, Thailand and other Asian nations have increased their dependence on coal or have opened up to boost energy generation from this element.

Türkiye announces "Action Agenda"

The World Meteorological Organization warned in a report published in October of "out of the ordinary" climate indicators, with warming very close to the limit of +1.5 ºC set in the Paris Agreement.

"This is the first COP in which it is clear, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the world will exceed the 1.5 degree goal," declared Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum, before asking "not to look the other way or lower ambitions."

Kurum, who serves as president of COP31, expressed his hope that, instead of setting new goals, the summit will focus on translating previous climate commitments into concrete actions. To this end, he announced the "Action Agenda", which includes the reduction of methane emissions and the construction of cities resilient to climate change and the goal of electrification by 2035.

In addition, it will ask governments, companies and other institutions to establish a written commitment that sets out principles to ensure that AI is developed and deployed sustainably.

Before the start of the summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders in a statement to "get serious, cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition away from fossil fuels, and delivering the financing and protection that vulnerable countries need."

The new edition of the planetary summit on the climate crisis comes in a year in which heat waves in Europe, large forest fires or the disaster in Nepal due to the collapse of a glacier have revealed the risks of global warming, now intensified by the powerful El Niño phenomenon, which threatens to make this year one of the four hottest in history.

An estimated 68,500 attendees and 25,000 collaborators during COP31. The United States, the second most polluting country in the world after China, was absent from the summit again, on the orders of President Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from climate negotiations during his two terms.

An unprecedented model of the COP facing the challenge of financing

COP31 is taking place under a new model in which one country exercises the presidency, in this case Turkey as host, while another directs the negotiations between States, a role assigned to Australia, which must persuade almost 200 countries of the decisions to be adopted.

Financing threatens to once again be one of the most contentious issues in negotiations between industrialized countries and developing economies.

As leaders delivered keynote addresses, negotiators from nearly 200 countries debated behind closed doors disagreements over funding for climate change adaptation, recovery from climate disasters and other long-standing hurdles.

"The countries that contributed least to causing this crisis should not have to go into debt to overcome it," argued Meena Raman, of the climate advocacy group Third World Network, based in Malaysia.

Chris Bowen, Australia's chair of the COP31 negotiations, expressed confidence that the conference would prove to the world that multilateralism works. "Let us show future generations that this generation rose to the occasion, to the challenge," he said.

The last two summits – COP30 in Brazil and COP29 in Azerbaijan – were criticized for ending with little consensus on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

With information from Reuters, AP and EFE.

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