Diplomats from nearly 200 countries are past the midpoint of the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, and the first real test of this year's theme — turning years of pledges into action — has already arrived, in the form of a dispute over who tracks the money.
At the conference's opening plenary on Nov. 9, delegates adopted a standalone Climate Finance Work Programme, a long-standing demand of developing countries that India and the African Group had pushed hard for. The European Union objected, arguing that last year's COP30 decision never created a free-standing agenda item and that any such program should wind down within two years; India disputed that reading. As a compromise to avoid a prolonged procedural fight, the COP31 presidency dropped two other items developing countries had sought: a dedicated track on tripling adaptation finance, and a separate agenda item on climate-related trade measures. India said it regretted the adaptation item's exclusion.
The $1.3 trillion question
The underlying fight is over scale. A roadmap presented ahead of the summit by Brazil's outgoing COP30 presidency estimates that mobilizing $1.27 trillion to $1.41 trillion a year by 2035 for developing-country climate action is achievable — but that without new measures, annual finance could plateau at roughly $461 billion, well short of the goal agreed at COP29 in Baku. Developing nations say they want finance that is public, grant-based and predictable, not debt that adds to their obligations; wealthy donors, led by the EU, say they remain committed to the Baku goal but have resisted structures that would lock in new standalone monitoring bodies.
Avantika Goswami of the Centre for Science and Environment, one of the civil society observers tracking the talks, welcomed the new finance work programme but said its real test will be whether it scrutinizes the quality of financing pledges, not just their size.
We have to make sure that the pledges committed, despite being meagre, deliver real change.
Avantika Goswami, Centre for Science and Environment
The COP31 presidency, split for the first time between host Turkey and Australia's Chris Bowen as lead negotiator, set a Friday deadline for a high-level summary of where talks stand and invited written submissions from parties through Saturday — today — ahead of a push toward a final text before the summit's scheduled close on Nov. 20. Notably absent from the proceedings, for a second consecutive year, is the United States, which withdrew from the Paris Agreement in early 2026.
