The UN’s annual climate talks kick off Monday (November 9, 2026) in Turkiye as rising temperatures heighten the urgency of action, with financial constraints and geopolitical tensions complicating efforts to secure global cooperation.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are facing tough discussions over how to accelerate the energy transition and provide funds to help developing nations cope with the worsening climate emergency. The climate emergency, meanwhile, continued to wreak havoc this year as punishing heatwaves baked Europe, wildfires raged in Indonesia and a glacier collapse triggered devastating floods in Nepal.
The EU, for its part, and other developed countries are under pressure from the developing nations to fulfil promises to provide funds they need to adapt to climate impacts and recover from extreme weather disasters.
Its centrepiece is an “electrification” drive to raise the share of global energy demand met by electricity from around 20% today to 35 percent by 2035. Countries need to turn “this positive spirit of being in a favourable environment into concrete, successful results”, he said.
An exceptionally strong El Nino climate phenomenon is forecast to peak later this year, adding to extreme weather and possibly helping to make 2026 or 2027 the hottest year on record.
“Global leaders must pull us back from the brink and commit to rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels and expanding renewable energy, an imperative reinforced by the current energy affordability crisis,” said Rachel Cleetus, climate programme director at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
