At Türkiye’s first UN climate summit, COP31 president Murat Kurum called for countries to turn climate pledges into projects that can attract investment. Sadiq Khan became the first Mayor of London to address a COP World Leaders’ Summit, warning that climate disinformation threatens public trust and undermines democracy.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has used his first UN climate summit as prime minister to reaffirm the UK’s 2050 net zero target and back a programme that aims to raise £5 billion in private finance for clean energy projects around the world.
Speaking at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, on Thursday, 12 November, Burnham recalled spending his first three weeks in office responding to what he described as Britain’s worst-ever wildfires. He also pointed to wars that had driven up fuel prices and gas bills, arguing that switching more of the economy to clean electricity would make Britain less vulnerable to global price shocks.
“Electrification is how we protect families from global fossil fuel shocks,” he told the summit. He said the shift could create jobs and lower bills, citing the approval of two offshore wind projects and a government-funded electric arc furnace in South Wales. He also acknowledged that the upfront cost of technologies such as heat pumps and electric cars still put them beyond the reach of many households.
Alongside UK support for the Amplify programme, Burnham announced Dame Madeleine Alessandri as Britain’s first special representative for climate security. He pledged to put climate resilience on the agenda when the UK takes up the G20 presidency in 2027, with a focus on debt, development and insurance.
Türkiye’s first COP
The conference opened on 9 November, with Türkiye hosting the annual UN climate talks for the first time. Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum took over the COP presidency from Brazil’s André Corrêa do Lago, while Australia’s Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is leading the negotiations.
“We want this to be an implementation COP. We want to get results,” Kurum told reporters. He said Türkiye wanted to turn countries’ climate plans into projects that could attract investment, make finance and technology easier for vulnerable countries to access, and help cities, farms and critical infrastructure withstand climate shocks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened the two-day Leaders’ Summit on 11 November alongside UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Azerbaijan’s İlham Aliyev, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were among those in Antalya. China sent Vice President Han Zheng on behalf of Xi Jinping. France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and India’s Narendra Modi were among the notable absentees. The United States sent no official delegation.
Erdoğan said the leaders’ talks had found common ground on electrification, greener industry, waste reduction and climate finance.
Both Cypriot leaders attend
TRNC President Tufan Erhürman (pictured below) attended at Erdoğan’s invitation and was welcomed by the Turkish president. He also held brief talks with Guterres and Aliyev.
Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides was received by Guterres and used his plenary address to call for regional co-operation on water management and wildfire response.
The two Cypriot leaders briefly shook hands at the summit, according to Politis.
Guterres’s final climate summit
Antalya is António Guterres’s last COP as UN Secretary-General. His second term ends on 31 December, after a decade in the role. At his final press conference in Antalya on Friday, Guterres called for “immediate and drastic emissions cuts” and urged wealthy countries to deliver the climate finance they had promised.
Kurum met him after the Leaders’ Summit and thanked him in a social media post for his “support, leadership and constructive contributions” to COP31.
Sadiq Khan warns over climate disinformation
Sadiq Khan became the first Mayor of London to address a COP World Leaders’ Summit. Speaking in Antalya on Thursday as co-chair of C40 Cities, he urged world leaders to work with cities to counter climate disinformation, warning that misleading claims online could undermine public trust and democratic debate and delay action on climate change. His office cited a YouGov poll in which 65 per cent of Londoners said climate disinformation was widespread on social media.
Khan pointed to the misleading claims that accompanied the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone and cited research linking cleaner air after the zone’s introduction to faster lung growth in children.
Mete Coban, London’s Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy and of Turkish descent, was also in Antalya with the UK delegation. He wrote on X that it was “an absolute honour” to see Khan address the summit and called it “a fitting recognition of London’s place at the forefront of global climate action”.
‘35 by 35’ pledge
One of the first concrete deals in Antalya was a $1.6 billion financing package signed by Türkiye and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The loans will support reforms under Türkiye’s climate law, including putting its emissions trading system into operation and helping local authorities prepare for risks such as drought.
At least 14 countries had backed Türkiye’s voluntary ‘35 by 35’ pledge by Thursday. It aims to raise electricity’s share of global final energy use from about 23% to 35% by 2035. The pledge leaves countries free to choose how they generate that electricity.
The UN Environment Programme also reported that 23 countries had expressed support for the Antalya Compact, which aims to cut the energy used per square metre to run buildings by at least 25% by 2035.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition also reported more than $480 million in new philanthropic funding to curb methane and other greenhouse gases besides carbon dioxide.
Negotiators were still divided over how explicitly any final agreement should address the shift away from coal, oil and gas. African countries were pushing for at least $120 billion a year by 2035 to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate impacts such as droughts and floods.
Australia’s Chris Bowen, who is leading the negotiations, said he expected a first draft of the main agreement early next week. COP31 is scheduled to close on Friday, 20 November.
