Guterres urges climate justice compact and faster fossil-fuel transition at COP31

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for a new “Climate Justice Compact” to speed up the shift from fossil fuels and increase support for developing countries, warning that current national climate plans fall far short of the emissions cuts needed.

In a speech to the leaders’ summit at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, on Wednesday, Guterres said global emissions needed to fall by about 6 per cent a year. Current national plans, including conditional commitments, would deliver at best a third of that reduction, he said. Even if fully implemented, they would leave the world on course for warming of more than 2.5°C by the end of the century.

The UN chief said the world had already passed the point at which it could avoid temporarily exceeding the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature limit. But he argued that the scale and duration of the overshoot remained subject to political choices. The UN statement records his remarks, not agreements adopted by governments at the summit.

Guterres’s proposed compact is built on four pillars: a faster and fairer transition away from fossil fuels, protection from climate impacts, greater finance for developing countries, and international cooperation. He called for credible national roadmaps, an end to new coal and oil and gas infrastructure that would undermine the 1.5°C goal, and faster expansion of renewables, electricity grids and energy storage.

He also urged developed countries to deliver at least $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035 and called for adaptation funding to be at least tripled by then. A separate $1.3 trillion annual finance goal for developing countries, he said, must become “real finance flowing”.

The address comes as COP31, which opened in Antalya amid low expectations for new targets, focuses on putting existing climate commitments into practice. At a separate event in the city, Guterres had also urged governments to accelerate clean electricity and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels.

To make the case for climate finance, Guterres contrasted the profits of major oil companies with funding for climate-related losses. He said the nine largest oil companies made $95 billion in profits in the last quarter, while the Loss and Damage Fund had received about $600 million. He called for governments to tax windfall profits and direct the money towards vulnerable countries.

Guterres said developing economies outside China are home to nearly two-thirds of humanity but receive less than a fifth of global clean-energy investment. Many also face borrowing costs two to three times higher than those paid by advanced economies, he said.