UN General Assembly head urges COP31 climate conference in Türkiye to focus on implementation

The president of the UN General Assembly said Wednesday that the COP31 climate conference must translate global climate pledges into tangible execution, warning that the world is veering sharply off course from established emissions limits.

"Paris gave us a compass, the UAE consensus gave us a direction, and Taku Pakasoa Declaration gave us the islands' and Pacific's voice. Antalya must now give us delivery," Khalilur Rahman told reporters during the UN Climate Conference in the southern Turkish city of Antalya.

Rahman noted that global carbon emissions reached a record 42 billion in 2025, with the last 12 years registering as the warmest on record, highlighting the growing environmental divide. While the 2015 Paris Agreement targeted a 1.5C (2.7F) threshold, he warned that current trajectories head toward 2.8C (5F), calling the disparity "not a gap; it's a chasm, and people are falling into it every day."

- Decarbonization targets, renewable deployment

Rahman outlined key benchmarks, noting that climate science requires a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

To achieve that reduction, he said nations must triple renewable energy generation by deploying approximately 1,200 gigawatts of capacity annually, describing decarbonization as the sole "viable path" to contain temperature rises.

He urged governments to use the COP31 presidency's 2035 sectoral benchmarks on electrification, sustainable buildings, green industry, and zero waste to turn national climate commitments into investable projects.

- Closing adaptation funding deficits

Addressing climate finance disparities, Rahman stressed that commitments without adequate funds leave human lives unprotected. He noted that while developing countries require up to $305 billion annually for climate adaptation, they currently receive only $26 billion.

"This gap is not a rounding error; it's a verdict on our solidarity," said Rahman, urging donors to provide financing on a non-debt-creating basis, capitalize the fund for responding to loss and damage, and allocate resources based on environmental vulnerability rather than national income levels alone.

Rahman urged deploying artificial intelligence and modern technology to expand early warning networks to remote populations and glacial zones, while demanding financial compensation for forest communities in the Amazon, the Congo Basin and Bangladesh.

"The small gavel of Paris did big things. Let the gavel of Antalya do bigger ones. Let this be the COP of implementation," he said, pledging to carry the conference's outcomes into the 2027 Sustainable Development Goals Summit.