UN chief tells Turkey climate summit: ‘This is the path to mutually assured destruction’

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned leaders at the COP31 climate summit in Turkey that the slow global response to climate change was putting the world on a path to “mutually assured destruction”. He called for faster action, arguing that rising emissions and temperatures are worsening climate-driven disasters and adding to wider global instability.

The summit opened on Monday on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, with leaders giving speeches over two days and negotiators from nearly 200 countries seeking a plan to increase electricity’s share of global energy use and revive efforts to move away from fossil fuels. Guterres said fossil fuels must be phased out, while the talks have received limited attention amid wars, inflation and other crises; the article also notes that the war on Iran has raised fossil fuel prices and boosted oil and gas companies’ profits.