The annual UN climate talks kick off this week with countries hoping to shore up co-operation in the face of growing geopolitical instability and devastating extreme weather events.
World leaders are set to meet at the Cop31 negotiations, which are taking place across two weeks in the city of Antalya on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
Andy Burnham, the British prime minister, is expected to attend with a British delegation that includes Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, and Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary.
Catastrophic
The summit’s presidency has an unprecedented joint arrangement where leadership responsibilities will be split between two countries – Turkey and Australia.
They are championing a headline “35-by-35” target to be agreed at the summit, which would commit countries to ensuring 35 per cent of final energy use globally comes from electricity – rather than fossil fuels – by 2035.
Negotiators are not under pressure to reach a major deal at Cop31 compared to other years.
But talks will still focus on how to accelerate the implementation of countries’ UN climate plans to cut planet-heating emissions as well as action on adapting to the changing climate and building resilience to the impacts.
It comes as the world has seen deadly weather events this year, including catastrophic flash floods in Nepal, unprecedented heatwaves across Europe, devastating wildfires in India and severe drought across Central and South America, while the warming El Nino weather phenomenon is set to escalate climate impacts in the coming months.
Obstruct
Ms Fahnbulleh said: “This summer, we all felt it: climate change is here, in Britain, now. No country can tackle it alone, which is why Cop31 matters.
“The answer to high bills and climate change is the same – more clean, homegrown power, creating good jobs and warmer homes. Cop31 is about Britain’s national interest.”
Negotiators face a particularly steep uphill battle to reach a consensus this year in light of the geopolitical outlook, as wars in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza and consequent volatile energy and commodity prices put strain on the multilateral process.
Many countries are already questioning the purpose of yet another goal and whether a new target on electrification is necessary given that countries have already reached a whole host of agreements at past summits, including pledging to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems.
In recent years, oil-rich countries have sought to obstruct agreements related to curbing fossil fuel use while poorer nations facing the worst of the climate impacts have called for more financial support from richer ones.
Momentum
Donald Trump, the US president, made the decision to pull the US out of the UN Paris Agreement – the landmark global framework in 2015 that committed countries to take action to limit global warming – which also marked a significant setback in international momentum.