Wars and trade disputes should not be allowed to distract the world from its struggle to combat global warming, the leaders of Brazil and Türkiye told the COP31 climate conference on Wednesday.
The comments on the third day of the annual UN summit came at the start of back-to-back speeches by world leaders that are meant to pave the way for negotiators to find a fresh deal to advance the international fight against climate change.
“A year ago, the planet left COP30 invigorated… (but) this momentum has dropped off at the start of this year. Climate change disappeared from the speeches and documents from global leadership,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country hosted last year’s conference, told the summit.
“We started talking more about weapons and tariffs than the survival of future generations,” he said. “The planet cannot be in the mercy of hegemonic struggles.”
Türkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan echoed the comment.
“Wars, crises, migration, famine and poverty increase the need for international solidarity each day,” he said.
The US and Israeli war on Iran this year has disrupted Middle East crude oil shipments and sent fuel prices soaring around the globe, triggering a scramble for reliable supplies.
Those dynamics have pushed global warming down the list of urgent priorities for some governments, even as climate advocates argue they make the perfect case for a more rapid adoption of clean energy alternatives to oil.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are seeking agreement at COP31 on a proposal from Turkey to increase the share of electricity in global energy use and revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders earlier in the day that the slow international response to climate change so far had placed the world on a path to destruction, and that fast action was needed to avert it.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. This is the path to mutually assured destruction,” Guterres said, pointing to rising emissions, global temperatures and worsening climate-driven disasters.
The United States, the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has skipped the talks for the second year in a row after President Donald Trump – who has called global warming a hoax – withdrew the US from climate cooperation following his return to office in 2025.
