Failure to provide an overwhelming response to the climate crisis means “the world as we know is over,” the president of the embattled Marshall Islands warned, as dozens of leaders gathered in Turkey for the Cop31 climate summit. Hilda Heine, one of a handful of Pacific Island leaders who gave an impassioned speech at Cop31 on Wednesday, told other heads of state that exceeding Paris’ 1.5C temperature target would mean waves devouring their coasts and floods destroying cities, schools and hospitals. She described seeing bright, lush corals underwater on her home island in July, which had been bleached a few months later. “It’s time to wake up,” Heine said. “Our response to the threat of excess must be overwhelming, or the world as we know will end.” Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, also called out governments that “have not done enough” to curb emissions since the Paris agreement. “The UN tells us that even if all promises are kept, we are heading for 2.6 degrees,” he said. “With current policies, we will end up at 2.8 degrees.” Let me be clear: overdoing it is not a new goal. It is a debt, a debt of warmth, lent against the future of our children. And we must give it back.” Hilda Heine in her speech at the Cop31 leaders’ summit, telling delegates: ‘It is time to wake up.’ Photograph: Mehmet Emin Menguarslan/Anadolu/Getty Images The opening of the international leaders’ summit, on the third day of Cop31, saw impassioned speeches interspersed with vigorous displays of Turkish music and dance. António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, blamed a deceptive industry for fossil fuels and to countries that “continue to expand fossil fuel production while claiming to be committed to 1.5°C.” His speech – a salvo intended to jump-start talks – was one of the last that Guterres, a strong climate advocate, will deliver as secretary-general before stepping down next month. “We need an extraordinary acceleration,” Guterres said. “Our planet is warming. The clock is running out. It’s time to make or bake. “Fossil fuels must follow the same path as the dinosaurs,” he added. “And that won’t happen on its own. Dinosaurs didn’t have a lobby, fossil fuels do.” Guterres said oil and gas companies had distorted science and delayed action on the climate crisis, and called for a tax on the windfall profits they have made from the Iran war. “It’s time to kick the habit and end the addiction to fossil fuels,” he said to applause. “It’s time for governments to tax these windfall profits and use them to help vulnerable countries recover. Polluters must pay.” Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesErdoğan said he wants Cop31 to be remembered as a turning point in the climate crisis and called on countries to act, rather than just making promises. “Every minute we fail to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, the risks and costs we face continue to grow,” the Turkish president said. However, outside the conference room on Monday, Erdoğan celebrated the discovery of two new oil fields with an estimated in-situ potential of 135 million barrels. In his speech to world leaders, Heine said that every new oil well drilled and every lump of coal mined was a threat to his country’s future. Without naming any individual oil or gas producers, he added: “The discovery of new fossil fuel resources is not something to celebrate but something to fear.” Albanese said the conference was a “historic moment” for Australia. The country is one of the largest exporters of coal and liquefied gas in the world. Albanese said governments had a “solemn responsibility” to act on the climate crisis, but was criticized for not mentioning fossil fuels in his speech. The leaders’ meeting was relatively threadbare. While 91 national leaders attended, according to the UN, important figures such as Donald Trump of the United States and Xi Jinping of China were absent. Perhaps tellingly, some other leaders who declined to attend, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, are heading to Ireland for an AI conference. Almost all countries at Cop31 are lagging in reducing emissions, with insufficient funding for nations most vulnerable to extreme heat, floods, fires and other climate-induced calamities. There is little sign that the talks will include any further progress on phasing out planet-warming fossil fuels. “I’m feeling a sense of panic here, from the scientific community,” said Bill Hare, a climate scientist and CEO of Climate Analytics, who described tense conversations with rainforest and cryosphere scientists. “The mood is gradually darkening among scientists. In fact, people talk about feeling like things have gone backwards.” The United Nations Environment Program has found that such excess is now inevitable and warned that its effects in frozen regions will be so calamitous that they should be kept as brief and low as possible. Other world leaders emphasized the urgency of this time of multiple crises and the need for multilateralism to finally deliver results. Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, president of North Macedonia, said: “We are the first generation to fully understand the consequences of our decisions, and perhaps the last to have time to change course. Future generations will live with the consequences of our decisions.”
