At COP31, Thunberg and Island Leaders Say Rich Nations Are Failing the Climate

At the UN's COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, activist Greta Thunberg accused wealthy governments of failing to take the climate crisis seriously, while leaders of vulnerable nations urged bigger countries to act now. The Independent reported that a new tracking report puts the world on course for 2.7C of warming by 2100.

Thunberg, who is attending the conference for the first time in five years, told reporters the planet is “not dying, it is being killed,” and said it is being harmed by the same people who are supposed to come to the rescue. She said it is the duty of activists to stand up and fight for everyone's human rights.

Frontline nations ask for action

The conference takes place in a year marked by destructive weather, including lethal floods and heatwaves, and by energy market turbulence triggered by the Iran war. Countries on the frontline of the crisis used the leaders' speeches to press for faster action.

Mali's prime minister, Abdoulaye Maiga, said countries and people that have contributed least to climate change should not bear the brunt, and that they should not be burdened by debt to fight the crisis. He said the planet is very sick and that acting today is essential because tomorrow will be too late.

Seychelles Vice President Alix Sebastien Pillay, whose country is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, said his nation's survival is at stake and that it is time to move past talking. The day before, Palau's president, Surangel Samuel Whipps Jr, said the 1.5 degree goal is slipping away. He recalled telling leaders at the Glasgow summit in 2021 that they might as well bomb his islands, saying the world is at war with a crisis it did not create.

What the new report finds

The latest update from the Climate Action Tracker initiative says collective climate action has stalled for the fifth consecutive year and warns of an “irrecoverable overshoot” of dangerous warming unless governments turn away from fossil fuels and cut emissions rapidly. Its main figures:

2.7C by 2100 with the climate policies governments have in place today, up slightly from 2.6C last year and the same as in 2021 to 2024.
2.6C if governments met their 2030 and 2035 emissions targets under the Paris Agreement, the same as last year.
1.9C in an optimistic scenario in which countries meet all their pledges, long-term targets and net zero goals.

The report also notes positive signs: clean electricity met all additional global demand for power in 2025, China and India are deploying renewables at a record pace, electric vehicle sales have reached new highs and deforestation in the Amazon has fallen sharply. Even so, it says alternatives to fossil fuels are not being deployed fast enough. The world is set to pass the Paris goal of 1.5C in the next few years, and experts say action is now needed to limit the size and length of the overshoot.

What it means for the climate talks

The Independent reported that UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, attending the conference for the first time as prime minister, warned that climate change is a national security issue. Campaigners said that, amid accusations that his government is deprioritising green policies, he must do more to close what they called a widening gap between words and deeds.

The summit is co-hosted by Turkey and Australia, two coal-dependent nations, and Ankara has drawn criticism for announcing the discovery of new oil fields during the meeting. For people in vulnerable countries, the speeches reflect a demand that the largest emitters cut emissions faster, and for everyone else, the tracker figures show how far current policies are from the Paris goal.

Around Prague, based on reporting by The Independent, The Guardian

Cover photo: Kushal Das / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

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