UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres railed against the oil and gas lobby on Wednesday, telling world leaders fossil fuels “must go the way of the dinosaurs” at a climate summit missing several prominent figures.
The two-week COP31 talks kicked off in Turkiye this week with governments under pressure to tackle climate change after a year of searing heatwaves and wildfires in Europe, and deadly floods in Nepal.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” Guterres told dozens of world leaders assembled in the Mediterranean city of Antalya for two days of speeches by heads of state and government.
But few major breakthroughs are anticipated at the COP31 negotiations, which run until November 20, as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since agreeing in 2023 for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels — the main driver of climate change — nations have struggled to advance that goal at the annual UN conferences.
At his final COP before stepping down in December, Guterres said governments cannot keep expanding fossil fuel production while claiming to support the fight against climate change.
“Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won’t happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do,” he said in another salvo against an industry he has long accused of fuelling climate chaos.
“Their strategy is simple: Distort the science. Delay the policy. Delay the action. Delay the accountability. It’s time to kick the habit — and end the fossil fuel addiction,” he said to sustained applause.
Climate silence
But some big names are missing at COP31, with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit.
“Since the start of this year, climate change has disappeared from speeches and documents from our global leadership,” recently re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told fellow leaders.
“We’ve turned to talking more about arms and tariffs than the survival of future generations,” he said.
Climate campaigners breathed a huge sigh of relief when Lula, who has overseen a dramatic drop in deforestation in the Amazon, defeated right-wing rival Flavio Bolsonaro in last month’s presidential election.
“Brazil is back to defend the continuity of a healthy planet,” Lula said.
While European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen spoke in Antalya, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were among the European leaders not present.
The leaders of Canada, Japan and India are also expected to skip the event, while Chinese President Xi Jinping, who rarely attends COPs, was represented by Vice President Han Zheng. Unsurprisingly, President Donald Trump, who pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement, is also not attending.
Fossil fear
Climate activists singled out two of Wednesday’s higher-profile speakers – the EU’s von der Leyen and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – for failing to mention fossil fuels by name during their speeches.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, whose Pacific nation is threatened by rising sea levels, said, “Every new oil well drilled, every new piece of coal extracted is a threat to my country’s future.
“The discovery of new fossil fuel resources is not something to celebrate, but something to fear,” she said.
Her message stood in stark contrast to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier this week announced the “good news” that his country had discovered new oil fields.
In his address on Wednesday, Erdogan said the world needed a “fair” energy transition that “takes into account the energy security and different development needs of different countries”.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, warned that “the quest for carbon neutrality without guaranteeing energy security can undermine our efforts”.
“The measures that are aimed at protecting the climate should not constitute barriers facing countries and impede their achievements of economic development,” he said.
Finland announced concrete plans to phase out fossil fuels, becoming just the fourth country after France, Germany and the Netherlands to do so.
COP31 host Turkiye is championing a voluntary initiative to accelerate the electrification of transport, buildings and industry, with a target of raising electricity’s share of global energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2035.
The EU has stressed that electrification must be “clean”, which could spark debate over the role of oil, gas and coal in the Turkish proposal.
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