COP31: "Switzerland cannot advance the negotiations without keeping its own promises"

COP31, the 31st United Nations Climate Conference, opens its doors this Monday, November 9 with a major challenge: finally move from promises to action. In Antalya, Turkey, representatives from some 200 countries will have two weeks to agree on several issues, including the one that is currently crystallizing all the controversies and causing many deadlocks: money.

By 2035, developing countries will need colossal amounts per year (305 billion according to the UN) to adapt to the worsening climate crisis. Yet, according to the latest United Nations report, titled “Loans? Not at all”, the financing currently committed by rich countries is far from sufficient. “The latest report on adaptation gaps reveals an abyssal deficit. For every dollar that developing countries need to adapt, they receive only 10 cents,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Can the response to these financial needs really emerge from a conference that has lost some of its luster since Paris in 2015? “COPs are big liners that operate by consensus, especially when it comes, as always, to putting their hand in their pocket,” lamented Virginie Lenk in an op-ed published in 24 heures. For the editor-in-chief of the Vaud daily, it is time to “completely rethink this model that leads to watered-down agreements.”

Can we hope that COP31 will finally initiate the change of course the planet desperately needs? We discuss it with Isolda Agazzi, head of development policy at Alliance Sud.

This is already the tenth COP since Paris in 2015. As many countries are scaling back their commitments on climate and decarbonization, does organizing such a conference still make sense today?

To implement the Paris Agreement on climate, it is essential that the international community meet each year. This agreement can only work if countries commit to one another to implement their national plans to combat climate change and to provide the necessary support to the poorest countries.

Since the Paris COP, which issues have truly progressed over the subsequent editions?

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, all countries have announced a national contribution to the global fight against climate change and are working to implement it. Projections for global warming now lie between 2.3 and 2.8 °C, compared with 4 °C in 2015.

These prospects remain largely insufficient to protect populations from the dangerous effects of the climate crisis, but they are already much better than if no agreement had been reached. This improvement was only possible because industrialized countries committed, in parallel, to raise their contribution to international climate finance to $100 billion per year.

Switzerland risks not meeting its own climate targets for 2030. Such an attitude is hard to understand from the world’s richest country.

What are your hopes and objectives for this 31st edition?

We hope that this conference will put back at the forefront the collective implementation of more ambitious measures to protect the climate, as the climate crisis is making life increasingly difficult for populations in all countries. Faced with this observation and awareness, countries should together send a strong signal that national actors can then relay to accelerate the exit from dependence on coal, oil and gas.

In what frame of mind do you approach this conference, given that climate ambitions are receding?

With the conviction that more ambitious climate policy benefits everyone. Except, perhaps, the shareholders of the fossil fuel industry. But they have already made enough money from these energy sources.

Does Switzerland still have a place in the COPs while it continues to fall back on climate protection and is reluctant to contribute to the 300 billion promised by Western countries to those most affected by global warming?

Switzerland realized, no later than this summer, that it itself depends heavily on the speed of the global exit from coal, oil and gas, as well as on the ability to curb warming. But it cannot advance the negotiations without keeping its own promises. It refuses to specify the amount of its fair contribution to the $300 billion target for financing the fight against climate change. It even risks not meeting its own climate targets for 2030. Such an attitude is hard to understand from the world’s richest country.

How do you analyze the controversial evolution of policy in Switzerland?

After this sweltering summer, there is little reason to question the agreed targets. Departing from them now would run counter to a policy aimed at bequeathing to future generations a Switzerland where it is good to live.

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