00:15The high-level leaders segment of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference officially
00:21open in Antalya, Turquia with the participation of over 90 heads of state and government. For
00:27more on how the summit is unfolding, we go with our correspondent, Junos Sooner. He's
00:32there and has all the details. Hello, Junos. Welcome to From the South.
00:37Good evening from Antalya, Alejandra and hello to our audience. The heads of state have started
00:44arriving to Antalya and have started the official, very official part of the United Nations Climate
00:52Conference that had already started on November 9th and will continue till November 20th. But today
00:59was the day where the heads of state arrived and the day started with the Secretary General of the UN
01:06and
01:06the Turkish Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan together planting an olive tree
01:13here in Antalya, a symbolic act for both forestation and peace as well, a topic that they would take
01:21up during the day as well. The official ceremony was opened by Antonio Guterres with a speech where he
01:28demanded a faster change from fossil oil to renewable energy, a better international cooperation among the
01:39countries and clearer and more measurable goals regarding the response to climate change.
01:47Guterres, he will end his term as Secretary General this year, by the end of this year, but he said,
01:54I will stay in this fight even after that date. Then the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took up
02:02speaking and he said he supported the idea. He emphasized again his country's proposal for broadening
02:10electrification. That means that the stated goal that the world's consumption of energy in the year 2035
02:18should be 35% electricity. Another approval of saying farewell to fossil oils by the Turkish President. But he
02:31also said that for that transition to happen, especially the poorer countries needed a better access to
02:38finance and that is the responsibility of the developed countries. And there he added also another issue,
02:45the situation in Gaza. He said in Gaza, in Palestine, there is not only a genocide happening, but also a
02:52destruction of the environment by the Israeli authorities. He dedicated quite a long time to this issue of his
03:00speech. Actually, the Brazilian President Lula da Silva also held a speech in the afternoon where he said
03:09that the climate change or the fight against climate change should not fall victim to hegemonic competition.
03:17He said he noticed that in the recent resolutions of the G7 or G20, the developed capitalist countries,
03:25no word was spent on climate change or the response to it. And he criticized that both Turkey and Brazil
03:35are
03:35working together on different working groups to establish concrete steps, measurable goals to be applied
03:46immediately against climate change, because this has been a clear demand of this summit that it shall be a summit
03:53of
03:54implementation, not of new goals, but concrete steps. The Prime Minister of Australia, co-hosting country,
04:03also supported the idea of electrification. And he said that the flows of international capital have already
04:11started changing their routes towards this end. We talked to several participants here. They placed a lot of hope,
04:19for instance, also income in organizations such as BRICS. The president of the New Development Bank, Dilma Rousseff,
04:27is also here at the summit. Several also placed hope in China. China is a major producer of renewable energy
04:36sources, energy measures, solar energy, wind energy. So there is also South-South cooperation panels taking place
04:44at this summit, which will continue tomorrow at the presidential level. More presidents or heads of state
04:50will deliver speeches. And then tomorrow, by the end of the day, the presidential part will conclude.
04:56But the panels, the pavillons, the roundtables, they will continue until October 20. We have numbers,
05:03by the way, the UN has published them just recently. 99,000 participants are registered here,
05:1134,000 on behalf of the participating parties, more than 20,000 technical personnel. Almost 4,000 media
05:22members are observing this summit and are accompanying it, just as we do. So they are all looking both to
05:30the presidential meetings and the pavillons and the roundtables where civil society actors, companies come
05:36together, do networking, all looking to produce answers against the climate change.
05:44Also, Junius, how important is this COP31, the holding of COP31 precisely in the current geopolitical landscape?
05:56But there are several arguments here presented by heads of state exactly in response to geopolitics.
06:04For instance, the Turkish Minister of Energy said that the tensions around the Strait of Hormuz,
06:12or the conflict in Ukraine, and the disruptions in the delivery of oil, again emphasize the need for
06:19electrification, not only to save the environment, but also as a measure to have national energy security.
06:28Others applauded this argument. For instance, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Rhein,
06:34she made the same argument that depending on oil was becoming more and more fragile for national
06:42economies and national security. Guterres himself said that almost the biggest majority of the population,
06:51world's population, world's population is depending on oil, but cannot control the conditions
06:55until under which it is delivered. So there is a main argument here being spread and supported by many,
07:03that the geopolitical tensions around the world and the aggressions that accompany them should lead the countries
07:11to move away from fuel oil, fossil oil and towards more electrification and renewable energy.
07:19Now, how far they will comply with it, that remains to be seen.
07:23Thank you, Yunus, very much for your first-hand information. We will keep in contact
07:28with you throughout the day to know more details.
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