The 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31), the UN's highest-level climate summit, is underway in Antalya, Türkiye — without a United States delegation and with only a low-level Chinese team at the table. That absence frames everything else on the agenda.

The summit, held under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a treaty adopted in 1992, gathers heads of state, ministers, scientists, business leaders and civil society representatives. It is the primary platform for negotiating collective action on climate change, and this is its 31st session.

What does COP31 want to achieve?

The talks aim high. Four headline goals dominate:

• Unlocking the climate potential of waste management through scalable circular-economy solutions (economic models that turn waste into a resource)
• Protecting marine ecosystems and unlocking blue carbon for climate resilience
• Advancing the global transition to sustainable, resilient food systems
• Preventing food loss and waste across the entire value chain, from production to consumption

On waste, negotiators want countries and the private sector to commit to measurable targets that prevent losses at source. They also plan to promote regulatory and financial instruments that strengthen reuse, recycling and circular-by-design principles.

A related priority is methane. COP31 encourages integrating waste-related methane reduction into updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — the formal climate pledges each country files under the UNFCCC. The aim is measurable targets and implementation roadmaps, not statements of intent.

Why do oceans feature so prominently?

The numbers explain it. Oceans absorb roughly 25 per cent of human-produced carbon dioxide and regulate global climate systems. Yet rising emissions drive ocean acidification, marine heatwaves and coastal ecosystem degradation.

COP31 is expected to strengthen ocean-climate action through enhanced observation, data sharing and regional cooperation. It also wants blue carbon ecosystems — seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangroves — folded into national climate strategies and NDCs, bringing coastal carbon sequestration into formal climate accounting.

Shared resilience frameworks are on the table too. These aim to reduce the impacts of acidification and marine heatwaves on vulnerable ecosystems. Consistent, accessible data should underpin evidence-based policy and early-warning capacity, while coastal communities facing sea-level rise and erosion get resilience support to safeguard livelihoods.

How big is the food-systems gap?

Roughly 318 million people face acute food insecurity due to climate shocks. Food systems generate one-third of global emissions, yet receive only four per cent of climate finance. COP31 wants to close that gap.

Food, water and climate will be treated as one interdependent system, not siloed agendas. Women farmers, described as the backbone of global food production, face disproportionate barriers to climate finance; the summit pledges targeted financing instruments to lower those barriers.

The Youth for Food and Climate Action initiative places younger generations at the centre, supporting green jobs, skills development and youth leadership across the agricultural value chain. Climate-resilient agriculture — systems protecting producers against drought, flooding and shifting conditions — and climate-resilient cities complete the picture.

Why the geopolitics matters

Here's the problem. The two largest economies are not fully aligned with the climate agenda. President Donald Trump sent no US delegation to Antalya. China sent low-level representation.

The US has form. It earlier repudiated the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty adopted in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, which entered into force on 16 February 2005 and aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the UNFCCC.

Industrialised nations pledged to offset the financial cost of combating climate change in developing countries. That pledge, the source argues, has lacked commitment — even as the largest share of ozone depletion traces back to industrialised economies.

Can the agenda actually be delivered?

The source's editorial view is blunt: the to-do list is attainable under normal circumstances, with all countries pulling their weight. The urgency of climate change, it argues, provides jobs for everyone — if governments set and enforce standards, and the private sector and individuals play their parts.

Nigeria offers a case study in inaction, the piece adds. Deforestation is driving desertification in the north; floods and erosion scourge the south; and gas flares in the nation's oilfields worsen acid rain and greenhouse effects. The government, it says, treats it all as business as usual.

The closing argument is simple. The international community must make good on its financial pledges to developing countries. The time to act is now.