ANTALYA: The COP31 finance fight dominated the opening day of the UN climate summit in Antalya, as developing countries pressed for faster adaptation funding and the World Meteorological Organization warned that 2026 will rank among the four hottest years on record. Nearly 200 countries are attending the conference, which runs from 9 to 20 November at the Antalya Expo Centre.
UN Climate Change chief Simon Stiell told the opening plenary that governments must move beyond announcing targets and focus on turning existing commitments into measurable outcomes. “Progress is nowhere near far enough or fair enough,” he said, urging countries to “supercharge solutions” that make a difference on the ground.
Türkiye’s Environment Minister Murat Kurum took the gavel as COP31 President, while Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will oversee the negotiations under an unusual co-presidency agreed at COP30. Mr Bowen announced that a presidency-led decision will be developed throughout the conference, rather than waiting until the final days, to agree practical measures that accelerate climate action.
COP31 finance fight: adaptation item blocked from the agenda
The sharpest dispute of the first day came over adaptation finance. The African Group of Negotiators, the continent’s negotiating bloc, had pushed for a standalone agenda item on tripling adaptation finance, to clarify the baseline for measuring the promised increase in funding and to establish how additional resources would be mobilised.
Delegates failed to reach consensus during Monday’s opening plenary. Mr Kurum subsequently ruled that the proposal would not be included as a standalone agenda item, saying its exclusion would not prevent further discussion under existing agenda items. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, chair of the African Group, had told a press briefing that the proposal received support from several parties.
Other proposals also failed to secure separate places on the official agenda, including discussions on climate-related trade matters and on mountains and climate. Comoros withdrew its proposal on sustainable diets, while a proposed standalone item on funding for the Green Climate Fund was also not adopted. The seventh review of the financial mechanism was deferred to COP32.
The climate finance work programme was, however, included in the agenda after late-night talks on Sunday, according to AFP reporting, following pressure from developing countries.
Mr Stiell said COP31 should prioritise progress towards tripling international public adaptation finance and addressing the barriers that prevent developing countries from accessing climate funding already pledged. He also urged countries to accelerate efforts to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and to expand electricity grids across borders.
He said combining faster electrification with reductions in methane emissions could reduce projected global warming by approximately 0.5 degrees Celsius.
Stiell and Kurum set the tone: delivery, not new promises
“No COP is a silver bullet. No single conference can bridge the chasm between the science and reality,” Mr Stiell told delegates. He said the conference should focus on accelerating existing solutions rather than introducing additional commitments that countries may struggle to implement.
Mr Kurum said the Turkish presidency would be guided by three principles — dialogue, consensus and action — with the aim of translating decisions into practical outcomes. “Our decisions must take shape in a city’s infrastructure, on a farmer’s land and along a factory’s production line. Families must feel their impact in lower energy bills,” he told delegates.
Mr Bowen acknowledged the differences ahead. “We know there will be a difference of views — on the value of the decision, on its elements, on how far we go. But our job is to work to close those differences and provide the most ambitious, most outcome-orientated decision that consensus will allow,” he said.
On climate finance, Mr Kurum referred to the agreement reached at COP29 in Baku, where countries adopted a new climate finance goal of at least $300 billion annually for developing countries by 2035, alongside a call to raise public and private climate financing to at least $1.3 trillion a year. He said COP31 would seek to connect countries and projects needing finance with investors through a Climate Implementation Bridge.
WMO: 2026 among the four hottest years on record
The scientific backdrop to the opening day was stark. The WMO State of the Climate Update 2026, released on the first day of COP31, shows that the past 12 years have individually been the warmest on record, with the past four years the top four.
The global average surface temperature for January to September 2026 was about 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, based on nine internationally recognised datasets. That is comparable to the whole-year averages for 2025 and 2023, and lower than the 2024 record of 1.55 degrees. Berkeley Earth, one of the datasets, has said it is 95 per cent confident that 2026 will surpass the 2024 record as the hottest year on record, although the WMO itself describes 2026 more cautiously as one of the four warmest years.
A very strong El Niño has been intensifying since August and is expected to be the strongest on record by December, the WMO said. It is forecast to continue into early 2027, and because El Niño typically has its greatest impact on global temperatures in the year after it develops, 2027 could be hotter still. “El Niño and indeed the state of the global climate in 2026 gives new meaning to the phrase off the charts,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said leaders must act. “We have entered a new age of climate extremes. A supersized El Niño is colliding with a planet already superheated by manmade climate change. Climate records keep falling. The human costs keep rising. And those least responsible are suffering first and worst,” he said.
The report records that 2026 is on track to be the tenth successive year of record ocean warmth, that global mean sea level reached a record high, and that glaciers lost more than 400 gigatonnes of ice in 2025 — roughly equivalent to one millimetre of sea-level rise. Greenhouse gas levels reached a new record in 2025, with carbon dioxide at about 426.8 parts per million, 53 per cent above the level in 1750.
The human toll is already visible. European heatwaves, drought and wildfires led to more than 30,000 excess deaths, according to preliminary estimates. An estimated 146.5 million people in India were exposed to extreme heat in an April 2026 heatwave, and a Himalayan glacier collapse and flash flood in Nepal in late August killed more than 1,300 people. The World Health Organization has, for the first time, classified the anticipated health impacts of El Niño as a health emergency.
What to watch on Day 2
Tuesday 10 November is Energy and Transport Day at COP31. The Global Electrification Ministerial, hosted by the COP31 Presidency and Electrify Now, is scheduled for 15:30 to 17:30 CET under the title “Delivering affordable clean electrification through policy, finance and partnerships”. Its outcomes will be a first test of whether the “implementation COP” can move from words to delivery.
The World Leaders Summit follows on 11 and 12 November. According to UN News, more than 90 heads of state and government are expected, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and UN Secretary-General António Guterres opening the summit. Brazil’s President Lula arrives in Antalya on 10 November for the summit.
The United States is not sending an official federal delegation, according to reports, although a subnational delegation of more than 100 governors, mayors and state officials is attending. The IPCC has also warned that governments’ failure to agree a timetable for its Seventh Assessment Report has dragged through five consecutive plenary sessions, with fresh talks due on 1 December, according to AFP reporting.
With finance the toughest issue on the table and the science warning that the planet is already in record territory, the coming days in Antalya will show whether the COP31 finance fight ends in a deal — or in another year of promises deferred. COP31 opened in Antalya with electrification and delivery at the centre of the agenda, and the Energy Day debate over renewables now continues into the ministerial.
Key facts
- COP31 runs 9–20 November 2026 at the Antalya Expo Centre, Türkiye, with nearly 200 countries attending.
- The African Group’s bid for a standalone agenda item on tripling adaptation finance was rejected on Day 1; discussion continues under existing items.
- WMO: January–September 2026 averaged about 1.47°C above the pre-industrial average; 2026 will be one of the four warmest years on record.
- El Niño is expected to be the strongest on record by December 2026 and to continue into early 2027.
- COP29 set a goal of at least $300 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2035, with total flows of at least $1.3 trillion a year.
- Energy and Transport Day is 10 November; the World Leaders Summit follows on 11–12 November.
