Representatives from nearly 200 countries started gathering on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast on Monday (November 9) for two weeks of climate talks, as war-driven energy security fears, surging AI power demand and US disengagement put new pressure on the fight against global warming, Reuters reports.
The US war with Iran has nations scrambling for oil cargoes and firing up coal plants, the rapid rollout of AI is pumping up power demand and the US, the world’s top historic greenhouse gas emitter, is shunning climate cooperation for the second year running.
All that has created a challenging backdrop destined to complicate efforts by COP31 host Turkey to land a strong deal, according to observers. "It's hard to be optimistic," said John Holdren, a professor of environmental policy at Harvard University.
Turkey's COP31 presidency has centered this year's UN-sponsored summit on a goal to electrify more than a third of the global economy by 2035, up from around a fifth today. It is asking nations to sign onto a pledge supporting that target.
