The COP31 United Nations climate summit opened Monday in Antalya, Turkey, with world leaders facing a year of deadly heat, floods and escalating energy costs—but without participation from the United States, the world’s second-largest greenhouse-gas polluter.
Delegates will spend nearly two weeks debating how to turn earlier climate promises into practical action. The November 9–20 conference comes as scientists warn that the world is likely to exceed the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
A summit focused on action
Turkey’s environment minister and COP31 president, Murat Kurum, said this year’s gathering will emphasize implementing existing commitments rather than negotiating another broad set of targets. The agenda includes expanding renewable electricity, reducing methane emissions, strengthening power grids and building cities that can withstand more extreme heat and flooding.
Turkey is serving as the official host while Australia is leading the negotiations, an unusual compromise reached after both countries sought to host the conference. The arrangement has also drawn scrutiny because both nations remain heavily connected to coal and other fossil fuels.
Climate chief warns of a global health crisis
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of U.N. Climate Change, told delegates that the climate emergency has become a worldwide health crisis. He pointed to extreme heat across southern Asia and estimated that record-breaking summer heat waves killed about 50,000 people in Europe.
Stiell urged governments to move faster on electrification and clean energy, arguing that doing so could reduce pollution, protect health systems and limit the economic damage caused by volatile fossil-fuel prices. He called on COP31 to “supercharge solutions” while acknowledging that no single summit can close the gap between scientific warnings and current government action.
Why the United States is absent
The United States is not participating after President Donald Trump withdrew the country from international climate negotiations. Its absence creates a major diplomatic and financial gap because the United States ranks behind only China in annual greenhouse-gas emissions and has historically played a central role in global climate agreements.
Without Washington at the table, other governments must decide whether they can advance agreements on climate finance, clean-energy investment and emissions reductions without one of the world’s largest economies. The absence may also strengthen China’s influence over the direction of the negotiations.
Money remains the hardest fight
One of the summit’s most difficult disputes involves financial support for developing countries. Poorer nations say they need grants and affordable financing to protect communities from rising temperatures, strengthen infrastructure and recover from climate disasters. They argue that countries that produced most historical emissions should provide more help without forcing vulnerable nations deeper into debt.
Negotiators are expected to debate progress toward tripling adaptation finance and whether previous funding commitments are being honored. Developing countries have repeatedly warned that ambitious emissions targets mean little if they lack the money and technology required to meet them.
Extreme weather raises the pressure
COP31 follows another year marked by deadly European heat waves, severe flooding in Nepal and other disasters linked to a warming climate. The summit also opens while conflict in the Middle East has disrupted energy markets and driven up prices for oil, gasoline, fertilizer and other products.
Those pressures have made the energy debate more complicated. Some governments are accelerating wind, solar and other renewable projects to reduce dependence on imported fuels. Others are expanding fossil-fuel production in the name of energy security and affordability.
What COP31 is expected to pursue
The conference’s action agenda calls for increasing electricity’s share of global energy use—preferably from renewable sources—from roughly 21% to 35% by 2035. Delegates will also discuss faster methane reductions, stronger electricity grids, climate-resilient cities and implementation of national emissions plans.
Stiell said the conference cannot solve the climate crisis overnight, but warned that governments must still deliver measurable progress. The central test will be whether countries leave Antalya with financing and implementation plans, rather than another collection of promises without clear enforcement.
Sources
- Associated Press: COP31 opens in Turkey, November 9, 2026
- U.N. Climate Change: Opening-day climate and health statement, November 9, 2026
- U.N. Climate Change Conference: COP31 official page
