Climateupdated 26m ago3 min read
MapAfrican Leaders Urge Developed Countries to Deliver Climate Finance at COP31 in Antalya
8 Western Mainstream6 West Asian4 Other3 AsianMap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
African leaders press developed countries to deliver on climate-finance pledges at COP31. Urges include fair funding access and turning pledges into concrete action for vulnerable nations.
Save coverage image
BBC was read line by line by the Watchdog: 0.0. See the score →
Finance Pledges Pressed
African leaders at COP31 in Antalya urged developed countries to deliver on climate finance commitments and turn global pledges into concrete action, warning vulnerable nations cannot shoulder the growing costs of climate change alone.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Vice President Tiemoko Meyliet Kone said “When the seasons become uncertain, it is the harvests that are jeopardized. It is incomes that disappear, and entire families who see their future threatened,” and he added that his country’s national climate plan targets a 33% emissions reduction by 2035 compared with projected business-as-usual levels.
Vice President Alix Sebastien Pillay called for urgent action to translate climate promises into concrete commitments and financial resources, warning that climate-related disasters place a disproportionate burden on vulnerable island nations.
Gabon’s Vice President Hugues Alexandre Barro Chambrier urged predictable and equitable climate finance, saying “Climate justice calls for nations contributing to the preservation of the planet’s ecological balance, not bearing the cost of this responsibility alone,” and he warned that denial and inaction were already having damaging consequences.
Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Guveya Dominic Nyikadzino Chiwenga said the commitment to mobilize at least $300 billion annually must translate into transparent financial flows, with developed countries taking the lead.
UK, Security, and Pushback
Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned at COP31 in Turkey that the consensus on both science and climate change has “gone,” while he said the UK was ready to begin a “new era of British leadership” on the climate change issue. Burnham opened his speech by saying the heat experienced in the UK this past summer “it was not normal,” and he said it was made 130 times more likely because of climate change, according to the Met Office. Dame Madeleine Alessandri said “Climate change and nature loss are increasingly shaping the security environment in which the UK operates,” as Burnham created the UK’s first climate security envoy.
Beth John, climate adviser at Oxfam, accused Burnham of double standards by saying, “The Prime Minister simply cannot call for clean power across the world while saying yes to more fossil fuels in the UK,” after the government approved the Jackdaw gas field. Professor Lord Nicholas Stern praised Burnham’s framing of climate change as a threat to security and said the importance of investments in clean electricity generation was “the best way of protecting households and businesses from the high prices and volatile markets for fossil fuels.”
Deals, Loss, and Deadlines
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank agreed a record $1.6 billion financing deal with COP31 host Turkey to support policy reforms aimed at attracting investment needed to hit climate goals, the bank said on Thursday. AIIB Chief Investment Officer Konstantin Limitovskiy said, “This financing represents AIIB's largest climate policy-based financing package to date,” and Reuters reported Turkey would need an estimated $68 billion in additional climate investment by 2030, around half from private sources. Reuters said the agreement would support implementation of Turkey’s Climate Law and its plan to cut planet-warming emissions, including an interim target for 2035 and a goal to achieve net zero by 2053.
“Negotiations matter—but success must be measured on the ground.”
António Guterres urged climate justice and greater support for vulnerable countries at the COP31 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya, warning that the climate crisis is advancing faster than efforts to contain it and saying “Climate justice is the defining challenge of the next decade.” Guterres also urged developed countries to provide at least $300 billion annually by 2035 and called for adaptation finance to be tripled by the same year, while he said “Negotiations matter—but success must be measured on the ground.”