Kicking climate can down the road

The world cannot afford one more climate summit to forge a weak outcome

- S DINAKAR

The raison d'etre for the global climate summit that has been held every year for the past three decades — to stop the planet from warming further —has just been pushed down the road over 10,000 km away to Antalya in Tiirkiye.

This was after nearly two weeks of frenzied deliberations in November failed to yield a consensus among 194 countries on emission reduction and climate finance targets.

‘Tiirkiye will host the 31st edition of the UN Conference of the Parties (COP31) but Australia will oversee the negotiations in an unprecedented arrangement of copresidency birthed out of a political compromise. Australia will mould the agenda for the November 2026 summit in coordination with Pacific nations.

“In this case, we can expect both 1.5 degrees (Celsius) and mitigation, as well as loss and damage and adaptation, to come to the fore (at COP31),” said Umit Sahin, head of the climate change programme at the Istanbul Policy Centre, Sabanci University, Tiirkiye, in a commentary on Backchannel.

His reference was to attempts at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels, and the financing needed for meeting expected loss, damage and adaptation costs arising from climate change.

But Sahin also raised concerns on whether Tiirkiye and Australia can work harmoniously after bitterly fighting to host COP31. “If they disagree, will the requirement to consult until consensus push the already chronically delayed COPs even further past their deadlines?”

“The global ambition to raise (to cap emissions) and the pathway to 1.5 (degree centigrade) being achieved, the text (of the adopted agenda) does not lay down a clear road map. So, it is weak in that sense,” said RR Rashmi, India’s climate negotiator at previous COPs and distinguished fellow at thinktank TERI.