Cutting fossil-fuel use and financing climate adaptation are the core themes of the UN COP31 conference, which opens Monday, 9 November, in Antalya, Turkey, and runs to 20 November, Mediafax reports.

The Paris Agreement of 2015 remains the benchmark — keeping warming well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. COP30 president Andre Correa do Lago told Reuters “we don’t need more negotiations. We need governments to start acting,” calling for finance, infrastructure and transport ministers to join the effort.

Climate Analytics estimates cutting methane and other short-lived pollutants could slow warming by about 12% by 2035; combined with a rapid fossil exit, 2030s warming rates could be halved, with a peak around 1.7°C by mid-century.

A European Investment Bank survey of 23,000 people finds three-quarters of EU citizens support rapidly cutting fossil fuels. The UN says developing countries need $305 billion a year for adaptation, while developed-country support reached only $28.2 billion in 2024.

Source consulted: World leaders gather in Turkey. Cutting fossil-fuel use is on the agenda — Mediafax.

Image: Antalya coast (Wikimedia Commons, CC0).

Sources consulted: World leaders gather in Turkey. Cutting fossil-fuel use is on the agenda — Mediafax.