Arabic version: افتتاح كوب31 في تركيا وسط تصاعد مخاطر المناخ
According to The Guardian, Cop31, the annual UN climate conference, has begun in Antalya, Turkey, with talks focused on implementing targets needed to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The summit opens as world leaders gather and negotiators seek to avoid the agenda disputes that have delayed the start of previous conferences.
The World Meteorological Organization said heat is accumulating in Earth’s systems at an accelerating rate. Its State of the Global Climate update found that the difference between energy entering from the sun and energy leaving Earth had reached its highest level since monitoring began. The agency said the imbalance will intensify extreme weather including heatwaves, droughts and tropical cyclones.
Global average surface temperature from January to September 2026 was about 1.47C above the preindustrial average, the WMO said, and the year is on track to be one of the four warmest on record. Sea surface temperatures reached monthly records, while sea level was the highest since records began. The ocean absorbs 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases, and 2026 is on course to be a 10th consecutive year of record ocean heat.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said the world had entered “a new age of climate extremes”. Separately, the European Environment Agency reported that EU emissions fell 1.6% in 2025. If all planned policies are implemented, the bloc’s net emissions should drop 54% from 1990 levels by 2030, just below its legally binding 55% target. The report said reductions over the next five years must match those achieved across the previous two decades to meet longer-term goals.
Finance is already emerging as a point of tension in Antalya. Developing countries have made it a priority, while the EU objected to renewed discussion of the Climate Finance Work Programme, launched at Cop30 in Brazil. The United States will have no official government presence at Cop31 for a second year, following its withdrawal from the international climate framework.
