The United States has no official delegation at the COP31 climate summit, which opened on Monday in Antalya, Turkey. Nearly 200 countries sent representatives to the two weeks of talks. Washington stayed away for a second year in a row.
President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement for a second time and pulled the country out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the treaty that underpins the negotiations. The United States is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind only China, and its absence leaves a gap in talks meant to coordinate global action on rising emissions and extreme weather.
Turkey holds the COP31 presidency, with Environment Minister Murat Kurum chairing the summit, while Australia leads the formal negotiations. The summit runs until November 20, and world leaders are due to address the gathering on Wednesday and Thursday. According to Reuters, negotiators are working on a plan to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive efforts to move away from fossil fuels.
A United Nations report last month found the world on course to break through the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit set under the Paris Agreement. A group of about 19 Democratic members of Congress is attending COP31, according to Just Security, after being denied the usual State Department assistance for the trip.
Source: Reuters
