Antalya, Türkiye – Greenpeace Africa calls on governments at the UN climate summit COP31 to respond to the looming overshoot of 1.5°C with urgent action to phase out fossil fuels and end forest destruction in a bid to limit the extent and duration of the overshoot.
After the stark reality check from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) confirming that an overshoot of the 1.5°C global warming limit will occur, the test at COP31 is whether governments can respond with action. Antalya must break the cycle of negotiations that produce incremental compromises rather than the breakthroughs needed to confront the worsening climate crisis.
*Dr Oulie Keita, Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa, said:* “The Global North spent centuries turning the atmosphere into a dumping ground. Yet, it is African communities whose historical carbon footprint is practically a rounding error who are absorbing the most brutal shocks of this crisis. As we face a looming 1.5°C overshoot, the African continent demands public, multi-year, grant-based climate finance, not debt-crippling loans that push our economies to the brink. It is time to enforce a progressive tax on the fossil fuel industry and force corporate polluters to pay for the loss and damage unfolding on our frontline communities across the continent.”
Fred Njehu, Pan African Political Strategist at Greenpeace Africa, said:“We cannot negotiate our way out of an overshoot while clinging to the fossil fuels of the past or pushing dangerous distractions like fossil gas as a transition fuel in Africa. True climate leadership at COP31 means committing to a sovereign, fast, and fair transition that scales renewable energy to at least 75% by 2035. Furthermore, there is no climate credibility without enforceable protection for standing forests like the Congo Basin, ensuring that climate finance goes directly as grants to the Indigenous and local communities who are the true stewards of these vital ecosystems.”
Jasper Inventor, Head of COP31 Greenpeace Delegation, said “The world is not short of climate promises, but we’ve run out of time to prevent a 1.5°C overshoot. Now COP31 must prove how climate diplomacy can deliver real change, not just more commitments that governments spend the next decade discussing how to implement.
“COP31 needs to secure a breakthrough that delivers. Every fraction of a degree matters, and every year of delay makes the consequences more severe. We need a fast, fair and funded transition away from fossil fuels, an end to forest destruction, urgently required climate finance for developing countries, and to make those most responsible for the climate crisis pay their fair share.
“An agreement at COP31 that falls short of what science demands is not a breakthrough, no matter how many countries sign up to it. Implementation cannot mean doing the bare minimum. It’s time for action.”
Ahead of the start of COP31, Greenpeace Türkiye activists displayed a giant banner on the Konyaaltı Beach in Antalya that was visible from space as a symbol of the planetary plight. .
