COP31 opens in Antalya as world heads for hottest year on record

World leaders and negotiators have gathered in Antalya, Turkey, for COP31, the latest UN climate summit. The talks opened as scientists warned that 2026 is on course to be the hottest year on record.

The UN says existing national pledges are not enough. BBC News reported that even if governments deliver all their current climate pledges, the world is heading for around 2.6C of warming this century, well above the 1.5C figure set in Paris.

BBC News also reported that the United States, the world's biggest historic polluter, has pulled out of the UN climate process under President Trump. The summit organisers say the talks are about delivering on past promises, including £300 billion a year in climate finance for poorer nations by 2035, BBC News reported.

Jim Dale, senior meteorologist at the British Weather Services and co-author of Surviving Extreme Weather, told BBC News that 2026 was likely to be among the top one or two hottest years. He warned that fossil fuel emissions remain at their peak after 31 years of COP meetings and said education on safety and survival was essential as extreme weather becomes more common.

UN chief António Guterres called on delegates to get serious about climate change, saying the Earth has entered a new age of climate extremes, BBC News reported. Jonathan Elkind, a former energy adviser to the Obama administration, told BBC News that every COP is a lagging indicator of what is possible, not a leading indicator. He criticised the US for being absent and hostile toward climate solutions.

BBC One West focused on the effects in the UK. Its climate editor Justin Rowlatt reported on wildfires in England and on Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, which used to flood about once a decade but has flooded eight times since 2020. He said 2026 was the year climate change stopped feeling like a problem for the future for many people.

Energy and Net Zero Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh told BBC One West that affordability was her overriding objective and that clean power was one route to delivering it. She said the government was putting £10 billion into flood defences and would take adaptation case by case. BBC One West also reported suggestions that the UK was preparing to weaken its targets for electric vehicle sales.