High fossil fuel prices spread inflation ‘like a cancer’, UN climate negotiator tells Cop31

Simon Stiell, the United Nations' chief climate negotiator, spoke at the opening plenary of Cop31 in Turkey, where delegates from nearly 200 countries are gathering to discuss accelerating the shift to electrification. Stiell warned that a global fossil fuel price crisis is "spreading inflation like a cancer" around the world, emphasizing the urgency of the moment and the suffering of vulnerable communities.

He highlighted the need for renewable energy and a renewed focus on electrification as alternatives to a planet still dependent on fossil fuels. The talks come as a historic El Niño builds in the Pacific and less than two months after a glacier collapse in Nepal and Tibet caused catastrophic flooding, killing at least 1,459 people.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, urged leaders to "get serious" by cutting emissions faster and accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels. Australia's climate change minister, Chris Bowen, the president of the negotiations, promised that while the 1.5C Paris target will be overshot, they can return to it with "urgency, solidarity, and resolve."

The "high ambition coalition," which includes 20 countries, is pushing for major progress in Antalya, emphasizing that every fraction of a degree matters in limiting global heating.