UN chief urges world leaders to tackle fossil fuels at COP31

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres railed against the oil and gas lobby on Wednesday, telling world leaders fossil fuels "must go the way of the dinosaurs" at a climate summit missing several prominent figures.

The two-week COP31 talks kicked off in Turkey this week with governments under pressure to tackle climate change after a year of searing heatwaves and wildfires in Europe, and deadly floods in Nepal.

"The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us," Guterres told dozens of world leaders assembled in the Mediterranean city of Antalya for two days of speeches by heads of state and government.

But few major breakthroughs are anticipated at the COP31 negotiations, which run until 20 November, as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Since agreeing in 2023 for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels -- the main driver of climate change -- nations have struggled to advance that goal at the annual UN conferences.

"Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won't happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do," Guterres said, urging governments to tax the windfall profits of oil companies.

"Their strategy is simple: Distort the science. Delay the policy. Delay the action. Delay the accountability. It's time to kick the habit -- and end the fossil fuel addiction," he said to sustained applause.

Leaders missing

Guterres, who has made the climate change fight a central issue since taking office in 2017, is attending his last COP before his term ends in December.

Some big names are missing at COP31, with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit.

"Since the start of this year, climate change has disappeared from speeches and documents from our global leadership," recently re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told fellow leaders.

"We've turned to talking more about arms and tariffs than the survival of future generations," he said.

Climate campaigners breathed a huge sigh of relief when Lula, who has overseen a dramatic drop in deforestation in the Amazon, defeated right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro in last month's presidential election.

"Brazil is back to defend the continuity of a healthy planet," Lula said.

While European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is coming to Antalya, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are staying away. COP31 coincides with an EU leaders' summit in Ireland on Thursday.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi are also absent from the most recent list.

Unsurprisingly, President Donald Trump, who pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement and has not sent officials to climate talks since his re-election in 2024, is not attending the summit.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who rarely attends COPs, will be represented by Vice President Han Zheng. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also absent.

The United States and China are the world's top economies and biggest emitters of planet-heating emissions.

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Low expectations

"It is a shame that some of the bigger European leaders aren't coming. We need Europe to be showing up strongly at this COP," Cosima Cassel, a climate diplomacy expert at think-tank E3G, told AFP.

Wopke Hoekstra, the EU's top climate official, said the absences were "not completely atypical" as leaders may have "practical" reasons for not being able to attend a summit.

But he also told reporters in Brussels that "expectations are not necessarily high" for this climate conference.

COP31 host Turkey is championing a voluntary initiative to accelerate the electrification of transport, buildings and industry, with a target of raising electricity's share of global energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035.

The EU has stressed that electrification must be "clean", which could spark debate over the role of oil, gas and coal in the Turkish proposal.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the world needs a "fair" energy transition that "takes into account the energy security and different development needs of different countries".