African negotiators have secured three key finance and trade priorities on the formal agenda of COP31, which opened in Antalya, Turkiye, amid warnings that a strengthening Super El Nino could intensify heat and drought across West Africa.
The two-week UN Climate Change Conference at the Antalya Expo Centre is being attended by nearly 200 nations. Proceedings are being led under a split presidency, with Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum serving as COP31 President and Australian Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen overseeing the negotiations.
The summit began as a World Meteorological Organization report forecast that 2026 could be among the four warmest years on record. An intense El Nino is releasing heat stored in the oceans, with temperatures expected to remain elevated into 2027 and hotter, drier conditions forecast for West Africa.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell called on governments to turn commitments into action.
“No single COP is a silver bullet. No single conference can bridge the chasm between the science and reality,” he told delegates.
Speaking at the opening plenary on behalf of Africa, and in alignment with the Group of 77 and China, African Group of Negotiators (AGN) Chair Nana Dr Antwi-Boasiako Amoah said developing countries could not implement their climate plans without the finance they had been promised.
“Africa comes to Antalya with one clear message: implementation depends on means of implementation,” Dr Amoah said.
“African countries have put forward ambitious NDCs and adaptation plans, but most of that ambition depends on finance that has not yet arrived.”
Following overnight discussions between delegation heads, parties agreed to add three proposals from the African bloc to the conference agenda. They will consider progress towards tripling adaptation finance, assess the Green Climate Fund’s funding requirements before its third replenishment, and examine how unilateral carbon-border and trade measures are affecting developing economies under Article 3.5 of the UN convention.
Negotiators representing the G77 and China said the Global Environment Facility’s ninth replenishment had fallen 27 per cent from the previous cycle, reaching a 16-year low. They also said several developed countries had halved their signed Green Climate Fund contributions for 2024–2027, while requests for loss and damage finance were more than eight times greater than the funds available.
Dr Amoah criticised the reliance on expensive loans to finance the clean-energy transition.
“The transition cannot be called ‘just’ if low-and middle-income countries must mortgage their futures in the process,” he said.
Guided by its Black Star Position Document, unveiled by Environmental Protection Authority Chief Executive Officer Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse, Ghana is seeking predictable grants and concessional finance for climate-resilient agriculture, coastal protection, water management and early warning systems.
The Ghana Statistical Service has warned that severe El Nino conditions could increase food, electricity and import costs. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ghana Meteorological Agency are preparing a national El Nino response plan aimed at protecting crops.
