Antonio Guterres Warns COP31 the Climate Crisis Is Outrunning The World
The United Nations chief opened two days of leaders’ speeches with a stark warning. But several big economies have sent no top leader, and the United States is staying away.
ANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 11 – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP31 opening on Wednesday that the slow response to climate change has put the world on a path to destruction and that only rapid action can change course.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” Guterres said.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP31 opening on Wednesday that the slow response to climate change has put the world on a path to destruction and that only rapid action can change course.
The talks opened on Monday. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are trying to agree on a plan to raise the share of electricity in the world’s energy use.
They also want to revive stalled efforts to move away from oil, gas and coal.
Turkey, which is hosting the summit, has pushed for an electrification goal to be at the heart of the final deal. The plan aims to raise electricity’s share of the world’s total energy use to 35% by 2035, from a little over a fifth now.
In theory, that would cut greenhouse gases from cars, factories and buildings. But critics say it may do little to slow warming. The plan does not require the new power to come from clean sources. And governments have yet to set out a wider plan to move away from fossil fuels.
Guterres urged countries to switch to clean energy faster.
He said the world’s reliance on fossil fuels also hurts economies, not just the climate. It was an apparent nod to the jump in oil prices since the United States and Israel went to war with Iran, which has disrupted oil exports from the Middle East.
He said three-quarters of the world’s people live in countries that import fossil fuels. Those people are exposed to price shocks they did not cause and cannot control, he said.
Recent wars, he added, show this is a recipe for lasting insecurity and a cost-of-living meltdown.
The summit comes at a hard time. Wars, high inflation and other crises are fighting for leaders’ attention. At the same time, the warning signs about the pace of warming keep getting louder.
A United Nations report last month found that the world is on course to exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit. Countries agreed to aim for that limit under the Paris Agreement to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
This year has also brought extreme heat waves across Western Europe. In Nepal, a glacier collapse set off a flood that killed more than 1,450 people. Thousands are still missing.
Laurent Fabius, a former French prime minister, led the Paris climate talks in 2015. He now heads a council of former summit presidents.
He told Reuters on Tuesday that the leaders’ speeches should push the talks forward.
He said leaders should use the moment to make announcements, and to explain how they will put their plans into action.
“The key word in Antalya is implementation,” Fabius said.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was re-elected at the end of October, was due to speak on Wednesday. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine were also expected to speak.
The United States is missing. It is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases. It has skipped the talks for the second year in a row. President Donald Trump, who has called global warming a hoax, pulled the country out of climate cooperation after he returned to office in 2025.
Several other countries, including France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada, did not send their top leaders and will not take part in the speeches. Mohamed Adow, who heads the think tank Power Shift Africa, said the world’s biggest economies should be leading the fight against the climate crisis rather than leaving it to others.
The talks are due to end on November 20.
