COP31 leaders' segment opens with G7 absences

World leaders are beginning the high-level segment of COP31 in Turkey, but several major names are absent from the annual UN climate summit.

The two-week conference opened earlier this week in Antalya. Leaders are due to speak on Wednesday and Thursday, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is attending, but French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are not. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi are also absent from the most recent list.

Cosima Cassel, a climate diplomacy expert at the think-tank E3G, said Europe needed to show up strongly at the summit. Wopke Hoekstra, the EU's top climate official, said such absences were “not completely atypical” and that leaders may have practical reasons for not attending.

US President Donald Trump is not attending. China is represented by Vice President Han Zheng rather than President Xi Jinping.

Turkey is championing a voluntary initiative to speed up electrification in transport, buildings and industry, with a target of raising electricity's share of global energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035. The EU has said electrification must be clean, a point that could lead to debate over the role of oil, gas and coal.