Scientists’ group warns of 1.5-degree overshoot as UN climate talks open

ANTALYA, Turkey — The Union of Concerned Scientists said the annual United Nations climate talks opening Monday in Turkey come as the world nears a dangerous overshoot of the 1.5-degree Celsius warming limit, and it pressed wealthy nations to pay more to help poorer countries cope.

The conference, known as COP31, runs Nov. 9-20 in Antalya, according to the science advocacy group, which issued its statement Sunday.

“COP31 comes at a watershed moment with the world staring into the abyss of overshooting 1.5°C of global warming,” said Rachel Cleetus, director of the group’s climate program.

The 1.5-degree target, measured against preindustrial temperatures, is the more ambitious goal set under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The group cited the U.N. Environment Programme’s 2026 Adaptation Gap report, which it said found public adaptation finance flowing from richer to lower-income countries totaled less than $32 billion in 2024. Developing countries need at least $305 billion a year by 2035, according to the estimate the group cited, and it said a goal set at last year’s COP30 talks to triple adaptation finance would fall well short of that need.

The statement pointed to deadly floods in Nepal this year that it said killed tens of thousands of people, and said a record-breaking El Niño is compounding climate harms. Cleetus said richer nations must fund adaptation as well as loss and damage in vulnerable countries.

The group also said the United States is absent from the talks after the Trump administration withdrew from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.

“The Trump administration is isolated in shamefully exiting the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement,” Cleetus said. She said the administration’s war with Iran, tariffs and attacks on clean energy have driven up costs, and that “Congress now has the power and responsibility to keep this reckless administration in check.”

This report is based on information from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Source: Union of Concerned Scientists