Cop31 Host: Climate Spending Must Exceed NATO's 5% Defense Pledge — SkimNews
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- Murat Kurum, Turkey's climate change minister and Cop31 president-designate, said NATO countries have pledged 5% of GDP to defense by 2035 but committed "much less" to climate, arguing "the climate issue is the security issue itself" and that pre-disaster spending is ten times cheaper than post-disaster spending.
- Kurum hedged on whether Cop31 should repeat the Cop28 "transition away from fossil fuels" language, telling the Guardian the world is "already in a transition" and suggesting further progress on that wording may not be possible.
- Australia's climate minister Chris Bowen noted only 0.2% of global climate finance goes to small island developing states like Tuvalu, and said Kurum and he will push at Cop31 for electricity to supply 35% of global energy by 2035, up from roughly 21% now.
- Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other oil-producing states strongly opposed naming fossil fuels at Cop30 in Brazil; dozens of frustrated countries met separately in Colombia to plot a path away from fossil fuels and plan to reconvene in Tuvalu next July.
- The UN Environment Programme warned that under the most optimistic scenario, global heating will reach at least 1.8°C — beyond the Paris agreement's 1.5°C ceiling — and called for immediate and sustained emissions cuts.
- The Fiji pre-Cop drew only 13 national leaders alongside Australian PM Anthony Albanese, while 13-year-old Tuvaluan speaker Melelusi Sokotia told delegates her friends' dreams as "teachers, doctors, builders" are being eclipsed by questions of whether they can "grow safely here in Tuvalu."
Why it matters: As Cop31 host, Turkey sets the summit's agenda framing, and Kurum's reluctance to repeat the fossil-fuel-transition language signals that the Antalya deal may sidestep the central demand from Pacific island nations and vulnerable countries, even as the UN warns the 1.5°C ceiling is already slipping to at least 1.8°C.
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