COP31 organisers seek 'ambitious' climate action

Fiji, Oct. 9: Organisers of an upcoming UN climate summit in Turkey said Thursday they would prepare a summary text for countries to adopt, as they lead a push for "ambitious" action on keeping the goal of global temperature rise of 1.5 C within reach.

The UN-sponsored global climate summit -- known as COP31 -- will be held in Antalya next month, following a "pre-COP" meeting in Fiji and Tuvalu, which wrapped up Thursday.

Co-organisers Australia and Turkey vowed Thursday to get negotiators to vote on a so-called "presidency-led decision" that they would have prepared beforehand.

That would, in theory at least, set a firm and realistic agenda, cutting the endless hours of gruelling negotiations that often dominate COP meetings before votes are taken on individual technical points.

That decision, they said, would focus on binding agreements like one towards electrification -- replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly, like diesel cars and gas heating, with electric alternatives.

"We feel that a presidency-led decision gives us the best chance of a strong and ambitious outcome at COP31," Australia's climate minister Chris Bowen said."To send the signal to follow the science to keep 1.5 degrees within reach, against the backdrop of the scientific evidence that we will overshoot it. We've got to overshoot it for as little and as short as possible," he said.