What to watch at COP31

COP31, the United Nation’s climate change conference, begun this week in Antalya, Türkiye and runs until 20 November. In this blog, Dr Alice Venn, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law at the University of Bristol outlines what to look out for at this year’s COP and why local action matters more than ever.

What is COP?

COP stands for conference of the parties. Every year COP brings together governments from around the world who are part of the UN’s climate change regime and have signed up to treaties such as the Paris Agreement. COP is designed to help progress commitments to reduce emissions, build resilience to climate change and move to a low carbon future in a way that’s just and inclusive for everyone.

What to look out for at COP31

There is a lot of urgent work still to be done to reduce global emissions and transition away from fossil fuels. Three key issues I’ll be keeping a close eye on at COP31 are:

1. Climate finance – how developed countries support developing countries and those that are most impacted by climate change to build resilience and reduce emissions. It is a key theme this year and something that’s been quite contentious previously. At COP29 two years ago there was an agreement to provide $300 billion dollars of finance yearly but this fell well short of what was being asked for which was around $1.3 trillion dollars. There is a lot of work being done to try and scale up climate finance and make sure that countries that are most affected by climate change receive what they need to respond to those impacts and keep people safe.
2. Just transition – how to move to a low carbon future in a way that is inclusive and fair for everybody. At the last COP there were some exciting developments, where a new mechanism was agreed for delivering on that just transition but it is still being hashed out. Watch this space!
3. Climate adaption – how do we deliver on the global goals to build resilience particularly in countries most severely impacted by climate change. As well as how to finance that both now and in the future.

Why local action matters

There is a huge amount happening locally, and local action is more crucial than ever. We are seeing some progress stalling at the international level and we know that we’re not doing enough to keep us within the 1.5 degree warming threshold to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We need communities to come together and deliver those bottom-up solutions to support one another in the face of worsening climate impacts like heatwaves and floods. Community knowledge and lived experience is vital in informing policy that works both at the national level and the international level.

I’m heartened that this is increasingly being acknowledged, particularly around just transition where there is that focus on a need for community participation from a range of different groups, for example, Indigenous peoples, Disabled people, and migrant workers. People that we know are going to be more severely impacted and should therefore have a stronger voice in these processes.

Local action is also really important to Türkiye who are hosting COP31 and hold the Presidency of COP jointly with Australia this year. Through this, they can give a steer towards issues that they think merit more focus for climate action. Their action agenda includes, for example, a focus on zero waste and circular economies, sustainable cooling, and building climate resilient cities, thinking about how to bring those local and city level solutions to guide international processes and to inform how other countries are approaching this.

Cities like Bristol have a lot of experience and valuable knowledge to bring to those discussions. We do a good job of convening people and bringing together community groups, businesses, the health sector, and local government, to think about how to ensure people, systems, our economy and our societies are ready for climate change impacts and to think about how we can do better in the future.