New Delhi: Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine has warned that failure to take decisive action against climate change could threaten the future of vulnerable nations.
She urged world leaders to respond with overwhelming measures to prevent global temperatures from exceeding the 1.5°C limit set under the Paris Agreement.
Addressing world leaders at the COP31 climate summit in Turkey, Heine highlighted the growing dangers facing Pacific island nations, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion and devastating floods that could destroy communities, schools and hospitals.
She cautioned that the consequences of climate overshoot would extend far beyond environmental damage, threatening the very world people know today. She stressed that the international response to the threat of overshooting the 1.5°C threshold must be overwhelming.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivered a strong criticism of the fossil fuel industry and governments that continue expanding fossil fuel production while claiming to support the 1.5°C target.
He called for an extraordinary acceleration of climate action, warning that the planet was heating up and the time available to meet global climate commitments was running out.
He also argued that fossil fuels must eventually be phased out, pointing to the influence of industry lobbying as a major obstacle to meaningful progress.
Guterres accused oil and gas companies of distorting scientific evidence and delaying action on climate change. He urged governments to introduce windfall taxes on the substantial profits energy companies had earned from the Iran war and use the revenue to help vulnerable countries recover from climate-related damage.
He further called for an end to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and insisted that polluters must bear the cost of the damage they cause.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley also criticised governments for failing to make sufficient progress in reducing emissions since the Paris Agreement. Citing United Nations projections, she said the world was heading towards a temperature rise of 2.6°C even if all existing climate pledges were fulfilled, while current policies could result in warming of 2.8°C.
Mottley cautioned against treating climate overshoot as an acceptable new target, describing it instead as a burden of accumulated heat that future generations would have to repay, according to guardian.com.
The gathering of international leaders on the third day of COP31 also highlighted the unusual arrangement under which Turkey and Australia are jointly hosting the climate conference. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese both praised the partnership.
Erdoğan expressed hope that COP31 would be remembered as a turning point in addressing the climate crisis and urged countries to move beyond promises and take concrete action. He warned that every delay in meeting the Paris Agreement targets was increasing the risks and costs associated with climate change.
However, away from the conference venue on Monday, Erdoğan had celebrated the discovery of two new oilfields with an estimated in-situ potential of 135 million barrels.
Albanese described the summit as a historic moment for Australia and stressed that governments had a solemn responsibility to act on climate change. However, his speech attracted criticism for not mentioning fossil fuels, despite Australia being one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquefied natural gas.
The gathering saw relatively limited participation from major world leaders. According to the UN, 91 national leaders attended the summit, while US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among the prominent absentees.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also skipped the gathering, travelling instead to Ireland for a conference on artificial intelligence.
The speeches at COP31 highlighted the growing divide between international climate commitments and the action being taken to fulfil them, with leaders from vulnerable island nations warning that continued delays could have devastating consequences for their people and future generations.
