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COP31 leaders secure $505mn to tackle Methane, super pollutants
Published : Thursday, 12 November, 2026 at 7:31 PM
Shahnaj Begum from Antaliya, Turkeya
The World leaders closed the high-level segment of the 31st UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) on Thursday by mobilizing more than $505 million in new funding to curb methane and other super pollutants, even as deepening divides over grant-based adaptation finance threatened to slow formal negotiations heading into the conference’s second phase.
The leaders’ summit on non-CO₂ greenhouse gases, co-hosted by China, the UK and Brazil with the COP30 and COP31 presidencies, secured more than $480 million in fresh philanthropic commitments and an additional $25 million for implementation programmes.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said methane, responsible for about a third of current warming, offers “breathing space” and is the fastest, lowest-cost way to limit near-term temperature overshoot. Citing 167 billion cubic metres of gas flared annually in oil and gas operations equivalent to $54 billion in wasted energy value he urged governments to use the newly operational Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism to reward methane capture at landfills and industrial sites.
More than 90 percent of Parties have now integrated non-CO₂ targets into their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), but Stiell said delivery across the real economy remains the main bottleneck. To strengthen accountability, the UNFCCC launched the Net-Zero Recognition Framework (NZRF) on Thursday after a year-long pilot. Integrated into the renewed NAZCA portal, it sets standard verification criteria for companies, financial institutions, cities and subnational regions to report transition milestones publicly.
Inside the negotiating rooms at the Antalya Expo Center, presided over by Australian Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen under COP31’s split Türkiye-Australia governance model, diplomatic friction centred on money rather than metrics.
After the 2025 Belém summit pushed the deadline to triple adaptation finance to 2035 without setting a baseline or identifying payers, developing nations are pressing for binding clarity in Antalya. UN Environment Programme assessments say developing economies need between $310 billion and $365 billion a year for adaptation by 2035, far above the $26 billion in international public adaptation finance delivered in 2023.
Pressure is also mounting on the newly established Loss and Damage Fund. Data circulating among negotiators indicates that 176 funding requests from 119 countries, totaling $2.8 billion, were already queued for support by mid-2026. The Least Developed Countries group, the African Group of Negotiators, and G77 and China argued that loan-heavy financing packages worsen sovereign debt distress and undermine equitable transition pathways.
Geopolitical tensions also reached the plenary, with Iranian and Palestinian leaders calling for international accountability and reconstruction support for conflict-induced damage to environmental and energy infrastructure.
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Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Advertisement: 41053012; 01793317829, 01550707291, 01550707296
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