Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday arrived at the COP31 Antalya Leaders’ Summit in Turkiye, where he is set to highlight Pakistan’s climate priorities, along with other world leaders.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya as global greenhouse gas emissions show little sign of falling and wars, inflation and other crises compete for political attention.
Ahead of the conference, PM Shehbaz arrived at the venue where he was received by Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Pakistan TV reported. World leaders, including PM Shehbaz, gathered for a group photograph at the summit, it added.
For his part, PM Shehbaz will highlight Pakistan’s climate priorities and emphasise the urgent need for enhanced global climate action and strengthened international cooperation to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said following the premier’s arrival in Turkiye on Tuesday night.
The Foreign Office (FO) has said the prime minister will also highlight “Pakistan’s steps towards rapid solarisation and expansion of its renewable energy capacity, as part of its transition towards a cleaner and more resilient economy, along with its efforts to strengthen disaster preparedness and early-warning systems”.
He will call for predictable, adequate and accessible climate finance for developing countries to strengthen their resilience and pursue sustainable development, it added.
PM Shehbaz will also address a high-level dialogue on clean energy transition and electrification convened by the COP31 presidency, titled “35 by 35: Powering the Future” and scheduled for 3pm local time (5pm Pakistan time).
On the sidelines of the summit, the prime minister is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other world leaders attending COP31 to discuss matters of mutual interest and explore avenues for strengthening bilateral cooperation.
According to the PMO, a “Pakistan Pavilion” has been established at the COP31 venue where 54 events will be hosted on various themes.
As the third day began, Guterres told world leaders at the summit that the slow international response to climate change so far had placed the world on a path to destruction.
Governments must fight harder to preserve the planet for future generations, he said, in comments that set the tone for two days of rapid-fire speeches by world leaders at the UN conference on Turkiye’s Mediterranean coast.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. This is the path to mutually assured destruction,” Guterres said, pointing to rising emissions, global temperatures and worsening climate-driven disasters.
“But science is not telling us to surrender. It is telling us to fight harder.” Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are seeking agreement on a plan to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels.
Wednesday’s speakers are also expected to include Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was re-elected at the end of October, and whose country hosted last year’s climate talks.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, and Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine will also speak on Wednesday.
The United States, the world’s largest historical emitter, has skipped the talks for the second year in a row after President Donald Trump — who has called global warming a hoax — withdrew the US from climate cooperation following his return to office in 2025.
Year of extreme weather
A UN report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit that countries had agreed to pursue under the Paris Agreement to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Meanwhile, 2026 has also stood out with a series of extreme heatwaves across Western Europe and a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a catastrophic flood killing more than 1,450 people, with thousands still missing.
Former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over the 2015 Paris climate conference and leads an advisory council of former COP presidents, said on Tuesday the leaders’ speeches should give political impetus to the negotiations.
“It is an opportunity for leaders to make some announcements, and more this time, to explain how they will implement, because the key word in Antalya is implementation,” he told Reuters.
Several other nations, including France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada, did not send their top leaders to the talks this year and won’t be represented in the speeches.
“The world’s biggest economies should be leading the response to the climate crisis, not leaving it to others,” said Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa.
Age of electricity?
COP31 host Turkiye has been pushing for countries to put a goal on electrification at the centre of a final deal, though critics say it may do little to curb warming.
The proposal targets a rise in electricity’s share of total global energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2035, up from a little over a fifth now, theoretically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars, factories and buildings.
But the proposal does not include language requiring new power to be generated by clean energy sources, and governments have yet to clarify a broader plan to transition away from fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Guterres urged countries to speed their transition to clean energy sources.
He said the world’s dependence on fossil fuels was also damaging economies, not just the climate, an apparent nod to surging petroleum prices since the start of the US and Israeli war against Iran that has disrupted Middle East oil exports.
“Three-quarters of humanity live in countries that import fossil fuels, hostage to price shocks they did not create and cannot control,” he said.
“Recent conflicts make clear that this is a recipe for chronic insecurity and a cost-of-living meltdown.”
‘Difficult start’
Ahead of the conference, negotiators had been locked in discussions late on Sunday over demands by developing nations to include items on climate finance in the official agenda.
“This has already been a difficult start for COP31,” said Jasper Inventor, head of Greenpeace’s COP31 delegation.
Under UN climate agreements, developed countries, which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, have provided financial support to help developing nations adapt to climate impacts and transition to cleaner energy. But poorer countries say the sums remain insufficient.
Inventor said developed countries were “taking a hard line” over whether to include a platform, agreed at COP30 in Brazil last year, aimed at discussing how wealthy nations should provide funds to developing nations.
African countries are also pushing for the agenda to include discussions on the tripling of adaptation finance, which aims to help poorer nations pay for measures such as building sea walls or planting drought-resistant crops.
Observers say few major breakthroughs are expected at COP31 as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war on Iran and Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
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