Wealthy nations should commit far more money to tackling the climate crisis than the 5% of GDP that Nato members have promised to spend on defence, the host of the next UN climate summit has said.
Murat Kurum, Turkey’s climate change minister and the president-designate of Cop31, said spending on climate needed to exceed defence budgets because “the climate issue is the security issue”.
Kurum was speaking at a pre-Cop summit in Nadi, Fiji, held this week to prepare for Cop31, which takes place in the Turkish city of Antalya in November. Australia holds the new role of “president of negotiations” at Cop31 and pushed for the preparatory meeting to be held in the Pacific to draw attention to island nations.
In comments likely to prove contentious, Kurum would not say whether countries should try to repeat the previous agreement to “transition away from fossil fuels” — the primary cause of the climate crisis — when they meet in Turkey next month. He told the Guardian the world was “already in a transition” and suggested fossil fuel use could instead be addressed indirectly through other steps.
Kurum argued that Nato countries had raised defence budgets to 5% of GDP by 2035 out of “concerns for their own safety and security”, yet had committed much less to addressing the climate crisis despite the greater risk it posed. Asked whether as much should be spent on climate as on defence, he replied: “Much more.”
Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “The climate issue is the security issue itself. If you don’t spend one unit of money prior to the disasters, then you are left in a position where you have to spend 10 units of money after the disaster. It’s cheaper pre-disaster.”
Kurum and Australian climate change minister Chris Bowen said they would focus in Antalya on winning backing for a global goal of meeting 35% of the energy needed to power homes, businesses, factories and vehicles with electricity by 2035. The current figure stands at about 21%.
Low turnout in Nadi
Geopolitical turmoil from war, a historic energy crisis and an unpredictable, climate-denying US administration — together with the knowledge that many attendees would be at the main summit within weeks — meant only 13 national leaders joined Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese in Nadi, most of them from the Pacific.
Around 30 ministers attended, including from India and European nations, alongside representatives from the major emitters China and Saudi Arabia, heads of global agencies and about 4,000 other participants.
On Tuesday, a delegation flew north to Tuvalu, a low-lying atoll nation of about 10,000 people ranked among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis. Visitors were shown a 20-hectare (49-acre) land reclamation project and told of life in a country that sits mostly about 2 metres above sea level, where rising waters, storm surges and intensifying extreme weather pose an accelerating threat to survival.
Melelusi Sokotia, 13, delivered a speech telling visitors that her friends’ ambitions to become “teachers, doctors, builders” were being overtaken by the question of whether they could “grow safely here in Tuvalu”.
Back in Nadi, Fiji’s climate minister, Lynda Tabuya, was moved to tears and received a standing ovation during her closing address. She urged delegates to “remember the people you met” and to “carry something of the Pacific with you”.
“This pre-Cop draws to a close tonight. Our responsibility does not,” Tabuya said.
Finance gap and emissions outlook
Around 190 countries will head to Antalya with evidence that commitments are not being met. A recent UN environment programme report warned that under the most optimistic scenario, global heating would reach at least 1.8C, well beyond the 1.5C ceiling of the Paris climate agreement. The report called for immediate and sustained emissions cuts, saying every fraction of a degree of heating avoided would save lives and reduce economic losses.
Throughout the pre-Cop, Pacific leaders repeated their demands: that countries act to “keep 1.5C alive”, that climate finance be easily accessible for poor and vulnerable communities that did not cause the problem but face the greatest risk, and that ocean health be prioritised.
Bowen said only 0.2% of global climate finance was spent helping small island developing countries adapt, and that the countries needing it most, such as Tuvalu, “get it the least”. “That has got to change,” he said. “It’s a key priority of Cop31.”
Fossil fuel language divides delegates
Both host countries backed a multi-country statement in Fiji supporting a global “transition away from fossil fuels”, echoing language adopted at Cop28 in Dubai three years ago. Both nevertheless faced criticism and accusations of hypocrisy for continuing to back new coal and gas developments and for being largely silent before the pre-Cop on the need to phase out fossil fuels.
Bowen said the way to end reliance on fossil fuels was not to cut supply but to build enough renewable energy that fossil fuel power plants would no longer be needed.
Kurum said the world was “already in a transition” and suggested that haggling over wording on transitioning away from fossil fuels might not be productive, as he did not believe further progress could be made. Delegates from some countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia and other oil-producing states, strongly opposed naming fossil fuels at Cop30 in Brazil.
Dozens of countries frustrated by what they view as a UN stalemate on the issue met separately in Colombia this year to discuss a path away from fossil fuels. They are due to meet again in Tuvalu next July and want the issue reflected in an agreement in Antalya.
Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said Pacific leaders had been clear in Nadi that an urgent fossil fuel phaseout was required.
“This means no new projects,” she said. “You can’t phase something out by building more of it.”
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