Two weeks of bickering over climate finance amid a petro-state pushback muddy 'pre-COP31' talks
The head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) painted a worrying picture of “geopolitical tensions washing through these halls” as he closed a fortnight of preparatory talks ahead of the global COP31 climate summit in Turkey in November.
“We must all deliver on existing obligations and plans under the Convention and Paris Agreement,” Simon Stiell said in a closing speech on Thursday. “We simply cannot afford to re-open previous decisions, to renegotiate existing targets, or to backslide.”
Amid growing tensions between the EU and a growing group of countries opposed to climate action, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US, with other large countries like China and India largely acting as bystanders, Stiell suggested a decade’s worth of negotiated progress could be at risk.
That includes the 2015 Paris Agreement to try and cap global heating a 1.5 degrees; a 2024 deal to increase rich countries’ financial support for climate action to $300 billion; and a 2025 agreement to triple funds for poorer countries’ climate adaptation efforts.
