Antonio Guterres says the world must fight harder, and accuses the fossil fuel lobby of delaying climate action at critical talks.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sought world leaders’ immediate response to climate change, which has put the world on a path to destruction, at the 31st Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Turkiye.
Accusing the fossil fuel lobby of “delaying” climate action, Guterres called on leaders on Wednesday to work to ensure that coal, gas and oil cease to exist as energy sources, saying it is needed to avert “disaster”.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. Emissions in 2025 reached all-time highs. Heat records keep shattering,” he said.
“The last four years were the hottest ever, and fossil fuel interests keep making a killing while killing our planet. Climate disasters are pounding lives, livelihoods and economies across the globe. This is the path to mutually assured destruction,” Guterres cautioned.
The past four years have been the warmest on record, and fossil‑fuel interests continue to exacerbate the crisis. Extreme climate events are devastating communities and economies worldwide, pushing humanity toward catastrophe.
Top leaders attending the summit include Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is the only leader from a G7 country, scheduled to address the summit on Thursday.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is also participating, while world leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadian PM Mark Carney and Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi are skipping the summit.
The United States, the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has skipped the talks for the second year in a row.
Iran’s Pezeshkian said he would use the event as an opportunity to express Tehran’s position on environmental destruction in war.
“At this conference, we will speak about the actions of the United States and Israel in destroying the environment,” he said before departing for Turkiye, according to Iranian state television.
A UN report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7F) warming limit that countries had agreed to pursue under the Paris Agreement to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
Meanwhile, 2026 has also been marked by a series of extreme heatwaves across Western Europe and a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a catastrophic flash flood, killing more than 1,500 people, with thousands still missing.