UN climate summit will focus on how to implement the targets needed to urgently cut greenhouse gas emissions
What is at stake at the UN climate summit and what can it achieve?
Key players at the climate talks
Hello, and welcome to the live blog for Cop31, this year’s UN climate summit. I’m Ajit Niranjan, the European environment correspondent – I’ll be running the liveblog from Berlin over the next two weeks while my colleagues in Antalya, Turkey, bring us updates from where the action is. We’re looking forward to guiding you through a hectic fortnight of planetary significance.
More than 90 heads of state and government, along with ministers and senior officials from close to 190 countries, are expected to descend on Turkey’s coastal city of Antalya this week, for the latest round of UN climate talks. Against a backdrop of rapidly rising temperatures and extreme weather, supercharged by fossil fuels, and fractious geopolitics, made worse by soaring inflation owing to the Iran war, the fortnight-long meeting will focus on “implementation” of the world’s targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions and help those stricken by the climate crisis.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/09/2026 - 01:00
US government will have no official presence at UN’s annual climate summit, this year’s Cop31 held in Antalya, Turkey
The US will be absent from key UN climate talks that start on Monday, a further sign of Donald Trump’s scornful dismissal of the climate crisis. But Democrats’ crushing win in the US midterm elections has delivered a timely shot of optimism to countries now looking beyond the Trump era of climate obstruction.
For the second year in a row, there will be no official US government presence at the annual climate summit, this year known as Cop31 and held in Antalya, Turkey. While almost every other country in the world sends delegations to the talks, Trump has derided the climate crisis as a “hoax” and “bullshit” and triggered the withdrawal of the US from the entire international climate framework.
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11/09/2026 - 00:47
‘It’s pretty obvious that there are all sorts of people making all sorts of comments,’ Murray Watt says after budget savings meeting
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The environment minister, Murray Watt, has urged ministers to stop undermining the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, as Labor struggles to sell its budget and looks to cut popular clean energy subsidies to help with the fight against inflation.
Cabinet ministers met again on Monday to discuss potential budget savings to be included in next month’s mid-year update, part of efforts to reducing spending to ease pressure on the economy.
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11/09/2026 - 00:39
It’s 2126 and class is getting under way beneath the Earth’s remaining ocean
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11/08/2026 - 13:50
The first winter storm began affecting the people of Gaza this weekend with heavy rain hitting on Saturday. Reports that about 70,000 tents were flooded within 12 hours prompted warnings of a worsening humanitarian situation for hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in temporary camps lacking adequate protection from rain and cold
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11/08/2026 - 12:51
Exclusive: Louise Haigh likely to weaken mandate for sales that forms key part of emission reduction plan
Analysis: Climate always comes second – are green issues slipping down Burnham’s agenda?
Ministers are expected to make steep cuts to the government’s electric vehicle (EV) targets this week, in a move that will relieve carmakers but alarm many Labour MPs who are worried about the government’s commitment to the green agenda.
Louise Haigh, the de facto deputy prime minister, will finalise the plan after a crunch meeting in Downing Street on Wednesday to settle a long-running dispute between the transport, energy and business departments.
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11/08/2026 - 10:00
Lesson for teenagers included how cattle’s methane emissions contribute to climate crisis, but it was then scrapped
A beef industry-funded effort to teach teenagers about cattle’s climate impact was quietly scrapped following backlash from some ranchers, who disputed the premise that cows contribute to global heating.
The episode is the latest example of the livestock industry’s decades-long battle to determine what US children learn about cows and the climate.
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11/08/2026 - 09:00
Howard Loosemore, alongside a few talented photographer friends, spent 15 years capturing every Australian fairywren species and plumage in vivid detail that’s been published in a new book about the small and colourful lives of fairywrens
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11/08/2026 - 08:24
High-stakes talks involving 190 countries begin on Monday as world grapples with El Niño supercharged by fossil fuels
The Cop31 summit must produce progress, “a tangible outcome ... that people can see is real”, its host has said as scores of world leaders and representatives of close to 190 countries gather in Turkey for the UN climate talks.
The high-stakes meeting begins on Monday, as countries around the world grapple with the strongest El Niño weather system on record, supercharged by fossil fuels, which is set to take hundreds of thousands of lives and cause damage costing trillions of dollars.
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