Key Facts

The 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) opened in Antalya, Turkiye, on 9 November, running until 20 November, with Australia leading the negotiations. The Paris Agreement of 2015 aims to keep global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. 'Overshoot' means allowing warming to temporarily exceed 1.5°C before being brought back down through net-negative emissions later. A commentary at COP31 argued that a UNEP report on limiting overshoot shifts the burden onto the Global South, noting that developed countries' claimed climate finance of about USD 137 billion in 2024 was worth only USD 33-45 billion in real terms, and that adaptation finance fell to USD 26 billion in 2023.

GK Context

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adopted at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, is the parent treaty under which the Conference of Parties (COP) meets annually. The Paris Agreement (COP21, 2015) is a legally binding international treaty requiring countries to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). 'Net-negative emissions' refers to removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than are emitted, typically through technologies like carbon capture and large-scale afforestation. The Global South broadly refers to developing and least-developed countries, which argue that climate finance commitments from developed nations remain inadequate and poorly accounted for.