ANTALYA: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took aim at oil companies making billions of dollars in profits while families, businesses and governments suffer, as he used the COP31 climate conference to criticise fossil fuel dependency. Tayyip Erdogan, president of the talks' host nation Turkey, meanwhile welcomed an oil discovery in the Turkish mountains, and the country's climate negotiators pushed governments to sign a pledge to electrify their economies.
The pledge does not specify whether the electricity involved would be renewable or from fossil fuels. Taken together, the discourse on Tuesday, the second day of the two-week UN conference in Antalya, highlights a tension at the heart of the climate debate: fossil fuels underpin the global economy, but also hurt it through costly climate damage and often-volatile energy prices.
A UN report last month showed the world is poised to warm well beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold scientists say could unleash the worst consequences of climate change, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. While many people endure the impact of inflation, oil companies have largely benefited from a rise in fossil fuel prices since the US-Israeli war on Iran disrupted energy shipments from the Middle East.
"Fossil fuels are not only driving the climate crisis. Dependence on them carries a steep economic and security price - as the crisis in the Middle East has laid bare," Guterres, who will step down at the end of the year, said.
"Families, businesses and governments are paying the price. Meanwhile, nine oil companies are on track to rake in more than $95 billion in just three months.
That is more than one billion dollars a day." Guterres did not name the companies. Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, BP and Shell have reported windfall earnings since the Iran war began at the end of February.
Earlier, COP31 host Turkey urged countries to sign up to a goal to increase the share of electricity in global energy use to 35 per cent by 2035 - up from around a fifth today. Turkey is seeking to incorporate that electrification goal into the formal outcome of the talks, according to a person familiar with the matter.
COP31 President Murat Kurum told a press conference in Antalya that the goal was a way to cut emissions, drive economic growth and ensure long-term energy security. Climate advocates have criticised the pledge because it does not require that the additional electricity come from low-carbon sources - something Kurum said was not required.
"I put forth a target for electrification. An exit from fossil fuels has already been put forth in previous COPs.
You have a path ahead of you today, one is becoming more costly, and one is becoming cheaper. Which one would you prefer?" he said.
The target is meant to help reduce planet-warming emissions by speeding the global shift away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles, furnaces, boilers, cooking stoves, and other greenhouse gas-emitting equipment. The previous COP in Brazil was unable to reach consensus on the need for a global plan to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, but the COP presidency has in recent weeks published a roadmap aimed at keeping that idea at the centre of the climate negotiations.
The roadmap asks countries to first plan and assess their energy systems by 2028, then work together to reduce fossil fuel consumption globally.