UN Climate Chief: COP31 Must Turn Climate Promises Into Real-World Action

NADI, Fiji — With four weeks to go before COP31 opens in Antalya, Türkiye, the United Nations’ top climate official has urged governments to make the summit the moment climate promises finally become real-world results. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said every economy is already paying the price of a warming planet — and a strengthening El Niño is making those costs worse.

FAKTA

• UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell spoke in Nadi, Fiji, at the close of the Pacific Pre-COP meetings, four weeks before COP31 opens in Antalya on 9 November 2026.
• His message: COP31 must focus on implementation — turning existing climate commitments into tangible results rather than negotiating new promises.
• He warned that El Niño is “supercharging” the economic costs of climate change for every country.
• Climate finance will be central: delivering existing commitments, including the new collective finance goal, and using the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to build towards US$1.3 trillion a year by 2035.
• Practical work on the action agenda is expected in areas including electrification, methane reduction, waste and ocean protection.

El Niño supercharging climate costs

According to Pacnews, Stiell said the impacts of climate change are no longer distant warnings but present-day damage felt across economies worldwide, with El Niño adding further pressure on top.

“Every nation is now on the front lines of the climate crisis. Every economy is already getting hammered, and now El Nino is up the ante and supercharging these climate costs,” he said.

He said small island states have the most at stake, while pointing to the Pacific’s own response to the crisis as the model the rest of the world should follow.

“Throughout the week, this region has shown again how to meet danger with determination, innovation, cooperation, and practical solutions,” Stiell said, according to Pacnews.

Finance at the centre of the talks

Stiell said climate finance will be a key part of the effort to accelerate delivery, calling on countries to scale up and speed up funding while broadening access to affordable money for the most vulnerable nations.

He said countries must deliver on existing finance commitments, including the new collective quantified goal agreed by nations, while using the Baku-to-Belém Roadmap to build towards US$1.3 trillion a year by 2035. The remarks were also reported by Pacific outlets including PINA, Pasifika News and Fiji Global News.

He also called for the COP process to be brought closer to the real economy, with governments, businesses, investors, cities and communities working together on projects and partnerships that can attract finance and deliver results.

Pacific island nations face the sharpest edge of the climate crisis — a reality Stiell said should guide COP31 in Antalya. Photo: Watan News

Negotiations and the road ahead

Stiell said negotiations will remain central to the COP process, particularly as countries move towards the second Global Stocktake at COP33. While there may not be a single major headline agreement on the agenda at COP31, he said there were still “complex and vital issues” that countries would need to resolve.

“That is incredibly hard when every country must agree on every single word,” he said — a reminder that the consensus rule means nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

He said no single COP could solve the global climate crisis, but COP31 needs to accelerate progress on practical measures: “All recent COPs have moved the world a significant step forward, and so must COP31. With just four weeks till COP starts in Antalya, there is no time to lose.”

Conclusion

The message from Nadi lands squarely on the COP31 presidency’s own theme — that implementation, not new pledges, is the test of Antalya. Whether the summit converts four weeks of urgency into real-world delivery will decide how history judges it. Read more climate coverage on Watan News.