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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres railed against the oil and gas lobby on Wednesday at a climate summit missing several prominent figures.
The two-week 2026 UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) kicked off in Turkiye this week.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” Guterres told world leaders assembled in Antalya for two days of speeches by heads of state and government.
But few breakthroughs are anticipated at the COP31 negotiations, which run until Nov 20.
Since agreeing in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels — the driver of climate change — nations have struggled to advance that goal at the annual UN conference.
At his final COP before stepping down next month, Guterres said governments could not keep expanding fossil fuel production while claiming to support the fight against climate change.
“Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won’t happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do,” he said in another salvo against an industry he accused of fuelling climate chaos.
But some big names are missing at COP31, with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit.
While European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen spoke in Antalya, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were among the European leaders not present.
The leaders of Canada, Japan and India are also expected to skip the event, while Chinese President Xi Jinping was represented by Vice-President Han Zheng.
President Donald Trump, who pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement, is also not attending.
Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine said: “Every new oil well drilled, every new piece of coal extracted is a threat to my country’s future.”
Her message stood in stark contrast to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who earlier this week announced the “good news” that his country had discovered new oil fields.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned that “the quest for carbon neutrality without guaranteeing energy security can undermine our efforts”.
Finland announced plans to phase out fossil fuels — the fourth country after France, Germany and the Netherlands to do so.
COP31 host Turkiye is championing a voluntary initiative to accelerate the electrification of transport, buildings and industry, with a target of raising electricity’s share of global energy use to 35 per cent by 2035.
The EU has stressed that electrification must be “clean”, which could spark debate over the role of oil, gas and coal in the Turkish proposal.