COP31 leaders press rich nations and oil firms on climate costs
Erim Eriz – ANTALYA
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged wealthy nations to take greater responsibility for climate finance on Nov. 11, as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on governments to tax oil industry windfall profits at the COP31 leaders’ summit in Antalya.
Guterres contrasted $95 billion in quarterly profits at nine major oil companies with total receipts of around $600 million at the Loss and Damage Fund, which supports developing countries facing climate damage.
The fund’s receipts amounted to about 14 hours of those companies’ earnings, he said.
“It’s time for governments to tax these windfall profits – and use them to help vulnerable countries recover,” Guterres said.
“Polluters must pay.”
The fund said its first funding round had drawn 176 requests covering 119 countries and seeking $2.8 billion, against $342 million allocated to the initial program.
Erdoğan said developed countries’ historical use of the global carbon budget gave them greater responsibility for cutting emissions and providing finance.
He said developing countries’ right to development must be protected, with easier access to funding and technology for the least developed countries and small island states.
“Climate finance must become more accessible, predictable and responsive to needs,” he said.
The president pointed to the Climate Implementation Bridge initiative, announced in September, as a way to connect local needs with investment.
He said Türkiye wanted the Antalya conference to focus on putting decisions into practice.
Guterres set out a proposed “Climate Justice Compact” covering the transition away from fossil fuels, protection for vulnerable communities, finance and international cooperation.
He urged developed countries to lead efforts to mobilize at least $300 billion a year by 2035 and called on all sources of finance to help raise the total to $1.3 trillion annually for developing countries by then.
The $300 billion goal and the wider $1.3 trillion financing target were set out at COP29 in Baku in 2024.
“We cannot demand that countries transform their economies while denying them the means to do so,” he said.
Guterres said emerging and developing economies outside China were home to nearly two-thirds of humanity but received less than one-fifth of global clean-energy investment.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also called for more support for vulnerable countries, particularly Pacific island states.
“The most vulnerable countries need capital. We must ensure that they get it,” he said, pointing to the Pacific Resilience Facility established with regional partners.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned that conflict and trade disputes were pushing climate action down the international agenda.
“We started talking more about weapons and tariffs than the survival of future generations,” Lula said.
The appeals came with warnings that current national climate plans remained insufficient.
Guterres said even full implementation would leave the world heading for warming of more than 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
He said a breach of the Paris Agreement’s long-term 1.5-degree warming limit was now inevitable, but countries could still determine how far temperatures rose above that level and for how long.
“We have the power to make sure the overshoot is a temporary breach, not a permanent sentence,” he said.
Erdoğan also linked environmental destruction to war, referring to Gaza after he and Guterres planted an olive sapling at the summit venue.
He contrasted the planting with the destruction of centuries-old olive trees in Gaza and described the devastation there as “genocide” and “ecocide.”
He said heavy rain had flooded tents sheltering Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed, and called for immediate humanitarian access.
Türkiye holds the COP31 presidency, while Australia leads the negotiations.
The conference continues through Nov. 20.