The UN climate talks, known as COP31, opened on November 8 in Antalya, Turkey, according to MIT Technology Review. Turkey and Australia are cohosting the talks, which are scheduled to end on November 20. Climate finance and fossil fuels are the main items on the formal agenda.
The report says this is the second COP without a formal US delegation. President Trump formally withdrew the country from the Paris Agreement earlier this year and is in the process of withdrawing from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty that allows formal participation in negotiations.
The report cites a September UN Environment Programme report that acknowledged global warming is set to exceed the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C goal "likely within the next few years."
On finance, talks two years ago set a goal of mobilizing $300 billion per year by 2035 to help reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. The report says rich nations provided $136.7 billion in 2024, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Last year's COP30 agreement included a goal of tripling adaptation funding over that period. The report notes that such funding has been fairly flat in recent years.
The report describes a glacier collapse earlier this