‘Not a single minute to lose’: COP31 chief slams nations for dodging climate responsibility
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COP31 President Murat Kurum says keeping rising global temperature in check “is a matter of survival”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- - COP31 chief Murat Kurum says climate action is urgent, and that nations are “running away" from their responsibility”.
- - At a pre-COP event in Fiji and Tuvalu, Pacific states pushed for more resilience funding, ocean protection and keeping warming below 1.5 deg C.
- - Kurum said US$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) could help save the Pacific, and he promised Turkey would take Pacific goals seriously at COP31, where 30 countries have backed deep emissions cuts.
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NADI, Fiji – Restricting global warming is a matter of survival, and too many countries are shirking their responsibility to cut emissions, the official presiding over the UN’s flagship upcoming climate conference said on the final day of the meeting’s precursor event on Oct 8.
“Today is a time where everyone is running away from responsibility,” Murat Kurum, Turkey’s climate minister and president of the 2026 United Nations COP conference (COP31) said at a news conference. “We do not have a single minute, a single day to lose.”
He was speaking on the final day of pre-COP, which brought thousands of delegates to Fiji this week and took a group from 30 countries to Tuvalu ahead of the main event to be held in Antalya, Turkey, in November.
Reflecting on his visit to the tiny low-lying atoll nation of Tuvalu on Oct 6, Kurum said mothers and children were under increasing threat from every high tide.
Pacific Island nations sought to use the pre-COP in their region to embed their priorities into the COP31 agenda.
These include better access to funding for resilience projects, protection of oceans and holding warming beneath 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels, something the UN Environment Programme says is impossible in the near term but could be achieved over time with emissions reduction.
But Kurum said holding to that limit is crucial.
“This 1.5 degree goal is a matter of survival,” he said. “The survival of cultures, history, memories, your homeland, your homes.”
Tuvalu consists of thin strips of land on average around 2m above sea level. It is suffering from increasing flooding, saltwater encroachment and volatile weather.
Kurum contrasted the threat that Tuvalu will disappear with commitments by NATO nations to increase defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product.
“What does it mean to spend 5% for defence if you don’t have a country to live on? What does it mean to defend it?“ he said.
“Financing of US$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) for 1.5 degrees will save the Pacific. It’s that easy. Life will continue in Tuvalu. Children will be smiling again,” he said.
Kurum pledged that Pacific goals will be taken seriously at COP31 in Turkey. Representatives of around 30 countries signed a declaration on Oct 6 endorsing those goals and calling for “deep, rapid and sustained emissions reductions”.
Turkey is a significant user of coal and oil whose carbon dioxide emissions have risen sharply in recent decades, but it has pledged to cut them to net-zero by 2053 and is expanding renewable energy. REUTERS