Climate crisis is 'outrunning us', UN chief warns COP31

Résumé détaillé

By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Valerie VolcoviciANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 11 (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP31 summit in Turkey on Wednesday that the slow international response to climate change had placed the world on a path to destruction, and that fast action is needed to avert it.His comments set the tone for two days of rapid-fire speeches by world leaders at the UN conference…

ANTALYA, Turkey, Nov 11 (Reuters) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP31 summit in Turkey on Wednesday that the slow international response to climate change had placed the world on a path to destruction, and that fast action is needed to avert it.

His comments set the tone for two days of rapid-fire speeches by world leaders at the UN conference on Turkey'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," he said. "Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs."

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.

The summit opened on Monday against the backdrop of wars, rampant inflation and other crises that are competing for political attention – but also amid increasingly alarming signals about the pace of global warming.

A UN report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) 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.

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