UN climate summit begins in Turkey with focus on tangible progress amid El Niño crisis

The Cop31 UN climate summit has commenced in Antalya, Turkey, with representatives from nearly 190 countries attending, The Guardian reported. The host emphasized the need for tangible progress that the public can recognize as real.

This year's talks are taking place amid the strongest El Niño weather system on record, which is being intensified by fossil fuel emissions, posing risks of widespread loss of life and economic damage in the trillions of dollars, according to The Guardian.

The summit is unusual in that while Turkey hosts the event, Australia presides over the formal negotiations following a compromise between the two countries, The Guardian detailed.

Key issues on the agenda include the 'just transition' to low-carbon economies, climate finance, and efforts to adhere as closely as possible to the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, The Guardian explained. The Paris goal of 1.5C has already been breached, but rapid action aims to limit the overshoot and return to lower temperatures by the end of the century.

Turkey is leading the 'action agenda' focused on voluntary initiatives such as reducing methane emissions, improving food security, cutting waste, and electrifying the global economy, which are not legally binding but aim to support the Paris goals, The Guardian noted.

The United States is absent from the summit, which adds complexity to global efforts to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and adopt low-carbon technologies, The Guardian reported.