World leaders will begin formal discussions Wednesday at the United Nations climate change conference in Turkey, hoping to agree on concrete actions to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heat waves and other climate-related disasters.
But what can and will be accomplished at the Conference of the Parties, called COP31, remains to be seen. Past talks have been criticized for making promises that later fell flat.
While delegates at the 2023 conference in Dubai agreed to transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas — the leading contributor to climate change — subsequent conferences in Azerbaijan and Brazil ended with little agreement on reductions. Last year's Brazil conference produced a compromise agreement pledging additional money to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.
This year's conference — Turkey is hosting and Australia is leading negotiations — officially kicked off Monday amid fears that the world is not moving quickly enough.
Scientists say global warming is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the preindustrial levels of the early 1800s. Limiting temperature rise to that threshold was a goal set during the 2015 Paris Agreement and has been a focus of international negotiations.
The talks also come as the war in Iran has increased global prices of gasoline, oil and products made with them, such as fertilizers and pesticides. That has pushed governments to rethink energy policies and investment in renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
“We don’t need more promises, we need plans,” said John Kerry, former US secretary of state and former presidential climate envoy, though the U.S. itself, the world’s second-largest polluter after China, is noticeably absent for the second year in a row.
US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, has targeted offshore wind projects and removed rules limiting power plant emissions.