Guterres Tells COP31 Leaders the Climate Crisis Is Outrunning Us

Updated 15:40 UTC: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan told the summit on Wednesday that wars and trade disputes must not push climate action aside, Reuters reported. Lula said climate change had disappeared from the speeches and documents of global leadership this year, adding: "We started talking more about weapons and tariffs than the survival of future generations." Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are weighing a Turkish proposal to raise the share of electricity in global energy use to 35 percent by 2035, from a little over a fifth now. The leaders speeches run through Thursday, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine among the speakers scheduled for Wednesday.

World leaders opened two days of speeches at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya on Wednesday, and the UN Secretary General set a hard tone from the start.

"The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us," Antonio Guterres told the leaders gathered on Turkey's Mediterranean coast. "This is the path to mutually assured destruction." His remarks opened the leaders summit, which runs on Wednesday and Thursday alongside the main negotiations.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Antalya for the conference, which opened on Monday, November 9 and runs to November 20. Turkey hosts and presides over the summit, while Australian climate minister Chris Bowen chairs the formal negotiations under a joint arrangement.

What leaders will hear

Wednesday's speakers were expected to include Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine. About 102 heads of state and government were expected at the summit, along with about 300 ministers.

The United States is absent for the second year in a row. President Donald Trump withdrew the US from climate cooperation after returning to office in 2025 and has called global warming a hoax.

The deal Turkey wants

Host Turkey is pushing for the final deal to put a goal on electrification at its centre. The proposal would raise electricity's share of total global energy use to 35 percent by 2035, up from a little over a fifth now, with the aim of cutting emissions from cars, factories and buildings. Critics say the goal may do little on its own to curb warming, because it does not set a direct limit on fossil fuels.

Negotiators are also trying to revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels and to settle how climate finance reaches the countries hit hardest. On the opening day, African countries tried and failed to add adaptation funding to the agenda.

Why it matters

A UN report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit that countries set in the Paris Agreement. The World Meteorological Organization said on Monday that 2026 is on course to be one of the four hottest years on record. Former French prime minister Laurent Fabius, who led the 2015 Paris conference, said the leaders' speeches could give the talks political impetus. The speeches run through Thursday, and the hard bargaining on money and fossil fuels continues into next week.