World leaders gathered in Antalya, Türkiye, on Wednesday, November 11, for the two-day Leaders' Summit of the COP31 UN climate conference, where UN Secretary-General António Guterres told them the planet is heading for more than 2.5°C of warming by the end of the century even if current national plans are fully implemented. “Our planet is heating up. The clock is winding down. It's make or bake time,” he said.

Source: UN News

In the sharper wording carried by Reuters, Guterres told the summit: “The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. Emissions in 2025 reached all-time highs. Heat records keep shattering. The last four years were the hottest ever and fossil fuel interests keep making a killing, while killing our planet… This is the path to mutually assured destruction.”

Source: Reuters via KWSN

Breaching the 1.5°C threshold does not mean giving up, he insisted: “Science is not telling us to surrender. It is telling us to fight harder.” Every fraction of a degree of warming avoided matters, he said.

A new 'climate justice compact'

Guterres proposed a climate justice compact to help developing countries move away from fossil fuels while protecting people already suffering climate damage. “We cannot demand that countries transform their economies while denying them the means to do so,” he said. The compact rests on four priorities, UN News reported: faster transition away from fossil fuels with protection for workers and communities; early-warning systems and stronger adaptation for vulnerable populations; affordable climate finance that actually reaches developing nations; and stronger international cooperation on trade barriers, technology divides and geopolitical rivalries.

'Polluters must pay'

The UN chief contrasted the $95 billion earned by the world's nine largest oil companies in a single quarter — yaani about 9,500 crore dollars — with the roughly $600 million (yaani about 60 crore dollars) received by the international fund that helps vulnerable countries recover from climate loss and damage. That fund's total, he said, equals just 14 hours of those companies' profits, and he urged governments to tax windfall profits. “Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs,” he declared. “The dinosaurs did not have a lobby. Fossil fuels do.” The line “Polluters must pay” earned him an ovation in the plenary, UN News reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose country is co-hosting COP31 with Australia, acknowledged that three decades of climate negotiations had failed to deliver sufficient results on implementation and called for greater support for developing countries. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned that climate change is losing ground as wars and trade disputes take over the agenda: “We started talking more about weapons and tariffs than the survival of future generations.” Lula said Brazil would develop national roadmaps to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and end deforestation.

Other leaders set out their own lines in the summit speeches reported by Reuters. China's Vice President Han Zheng said developed countries should take the lead in cutting emissions and honour their climate finance commitments. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said COP31 must deliver practical results on clean-energy investment, electrification and climate finance. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen backed the 35-by-35 Global Electrification Pledge, and Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said climate finance “must be new, additional, predictable and grant-based” — a grants-not-loans demand that India and other developing countries have also pressed at COP31.

Methane: the 'climate emergency brake'

Wednesday was also COP31's “Zero Waste” thematic day, where methane took centre stage. The gas traps more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over 20 years and is responsible for nearly a third of global warming to date, UN News reported. Guterres called on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to develop a global standard for near-zero methane emissions from oil and gas, noting that of more than 5,000 satellite leak alerts issued since 2023, barely one in eight has received a response. UNEP's monitoring system has helped cut emissions in 45 cases across 13 countries — including a damaged pipeline in Iraq that had leaked for two years, with emissions equal to 350,000 cars, before the leak was stopped. “Methane is our climate emergency brake,” UNEP's Julia Ferini said.

No final COP31 agreement has been reached: disagreements persist over adaptation finance, UN News reported, and the conference runs until November 20. The United States is staying away from the conference for a second consecutive year, following President Donald Trump's withdrawal from international climate cooperation, Reuters reported. For India — where Punjab's farmers face heat, flood and groundwater stress every season — the Antalya fight over who pays for adaptation and loss and damage is not abstract: developing countries are asking that the money arrive as grants and real finance, not fresh debt.

COP31 opened in Antalya on November 9 with the finance row already under way. Read the earlier report: COP31 opens in Antalya: Guterres, climate extremes and the finance row