When multilateralism is selective, climate will wait

World's richest leaders take a rain check on annual UN climate summit

ANTALYA:

As leaders of wealthy nations skip the COP31 Leaders' Summit in Antalya, their absence raises serious questions about commitments to international cooperation on the one issue that will inevitably define humanity's fate.

The absence of several heads of government from the annual United Nations climate gathering comes at a time when developing countries are demanding greater financial support to deal with the impacts of climate, adapt to rising temperatures and recover from increasingly destructive disasters.

For countries already struggling with the economic consequences of climate change, the absence of political leadership from wealthy nations is about more than diplomatic symbolism.

Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands are among the European countries whose leaders are missing from the Antalya gathering. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi are also absent. Their governments, however, are represented by ministers and other officials attending the negotiations.

Climate Action Network (CAN), a global coalition of civil society organisations, described the empty chairs as a troubling gap between governments' public commitments to multilateralism and their willingness to demonstrate that commitment at the highest political level.

And the timing has added to the criticism as several European leaders are also expected in Dublin this week for meetings of the European Political Community and the European Council. The latter, scheduled for November 13, will include a discussion on artificial intelligence.

The juxtaposition has prompted CAN, among other climate activists, to question why political leaders can make time for discussions about emerging technologies, while the climate crisis struggles to secure their presence.

Harjeet Singh, strategic adviser to the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative and global convenor of the Fill the Fund campaign, argues that the absence of wealthy-country leaders has consequences beyond the optics of empty chairs.

"When prime ministers and presidents stay home, their delegations lack the political mandate needed to break deadlocks on public climate finance and Loss and Damage," he cautioned. "The true test of multilateralism is showing up when it matters most," he added.

Chiara Martinelli, director of CAN Europe, said the absent European leaders were missing an opportunity to build trust and demonstrate that international climate cooperation still had political backing at the highest level. Their absence would not stop the negotiations, she said, but placed greater responsibility on the ministers and negotiators attending on their governments' behalf.

Developing countries have repeatedly argued that loans cannot substitute for grants when they are already facing high debt burdens and the growing costs of climate-related disasters. Singh warned that repeated evasions by countries responsible for a large share of historical emissions were damaging international trust and threatening the framework of cooperative climate governance.

According to experts, the negotiations can therefore proceed, and their outcome will depend on what governments are prepared to agree and deliver, not simply on who occupies the seats at the summit. But the absence of political leaders at a gathering designed to build consensus and direction around climate action shows the priority governments attach to the process.