The world has reached the halfway point of COP31, one of the largest climate meetings ever held. Nearly 200 countries are sitting together in Antalya, Türkiye, trying to agree on how to save the planet from climate change. They are working through 165 different tasks and promises. Each country has its own view. Every country has its own voice. Getting agreement on every word and every sentence is very tough work, but it is very important work.
This was the message of Simon Stiell, the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, when he spoke to reporters on Saturday, 14 November. He said, “We have reached the midpoint of a dynamic COP. One of the largest COPs ever. Nearly 200 countries are working through 165 mandates. Each country has a view. Every country has a voice. Getting agreement on every word, every sentence, is tough but vital work. There is no collective success without compromise from every Party.”
In simple words, he means no country can win alone. All countries must give and take a little, or no one will win. As the meeting goes into its second week, he asked all countries to move fast to the hardest issues and to avoid tactical delays. He said countries should not waste time with tricks. They should talk about the real problems now.
Stiell also talked about a new idea. He said climate action will only win if it reaches billions of ordinary people. Most people do not read long UN reports. They watch football. They watch films. They listen to music. They love sports and art. So the UN wants to meet people where they are, in their everyday lives.
“We can only win this global climate fight if we – in the climate community – get better at enlisting billions of people. To do that, we need to meet people where they are at, in their everyday lives,” he said.
He explained that climate action must be connected to things people need — like better health, good jobs, and cheap and safe energy — and to things people love — like sports. It must also reach people through films, music, television, and art. “Films, music, television and art help us understand who we are, where we belong and what we believe is possible. They can make loss real. They can also make action imaginable. Climate action needs imagination,” he said.
To show this, other speakers also joined the press conference. Vanessa Hauc from Telemundo told how she brought the climate story to millions of people watching this summer’s World Cup, using hydration breaks to explain why the heat was dangerous and what it meant. Tamseel Hussain, Founder and CEO of PLUC, talked about how he is helping a new generation of creators to tell stories that are rooted in people’s real lives.
But COP31 was not only about talks and stories. On Finance and Trade Day, governments, banks, and businesses came together to solve one of the biggest problems: money is promised, but it does not reach the projects and countries that need it most.
A big step was the COP31 Presidency’s Climate Implementation Bridge, called BRIDGE. This platform helps countries move from promises on paper to real projects on the ground. Four new countries — Chile, Lebanon, Mexico and Zambia — have now joined BRIDGE. They follow Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, who were the first group. Together, these countries represent different parts of the world, but they all want the same thing: real investment for clean energy, for adaptation, and for protecting people from floods, heat, and droughts.
BRIDGE uses the UN’s “Climate Promise: Forward” system. It helps governments find what is stopping them, build their capacity, and connect them with partners who can give technical and financial help. On Friday, Türkiye’s Ministry of Treasury and Finance, together with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, and the UN Development Programme, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support this work. Türkiye gave $3 million in grants to make the platform work.COP31 President Murat Kurum said, “The critical gap we must close is between climate ambition and implementation. Through BRIDGE, we help countries turn their national priorities into investable projects and connect them with the finance, capacity and partnerships needed to deliver. At COP31, we are calling on governments, financial institutions and businesses to help move climate action from plans on paper to results on the ground.”
The private sector also played a big role. The COP31 Business Forum, organised by TOBB, was the largest ever gathering of businesses at a COP. It had 4,000 attendees and 100 speakers across 23 sessions. Business leaders and investors talked about how finance and new technology can make climate solutions faster and cheaper. TOBB released a list of recommendations on finance, standards, market rules, and tools for implementation.COP31 also tried to make climate finance easier to get. The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action heard from the UN Secretary-General, Türkiye and Australia about the need for climate ministries and finance ministries to work together. Australia’s green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, launched the Green Bank Accelerator with NRDC and SOAS University of London. It will help developing countries build their own green banks. In just over ten years, this bank has mobilised over $100 billion AUD for Australia’s net zero journey.
