ANTALYA (AFP)

The UN's COP31 climate talks opened in Turkiye on Monday after a slight delay following a debate over including items on finance on the agenda.

The president of last year's COP30 summit in Brazil, Andrea Correa do Lago, declared the opening of the conference in the Mediterranean seaside city of Antalya.

UN chief Antonio Guterres earlier urged world leaders to "get serious" about tackling climate change.

The summit comes after a year of punishing heatwaves in Europe, major wildfires in Indonesia, and catastrophic floods in Nepal, with an exceptionally strong El Nino weather phenomenon fuelling more climate chaos.

"We have entered a new age of climate extremes," Guterres said in a statement. He urged leaders to "get serious by cutting emissions faster, accelerating a just transition from fossil fuels, and delivering the finance and protection vulnerable countries need".

Under UN climate agreements, developed countries, which are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions, have provided financial support to help developing nations adapt to climate impacts and transition to cleaner energy. But poorer countries say the sums remain insufficient.

The UN's World Meteorological Organisation has meanwhile released a report indicating that 2026 has continued a streak of exceptional global temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels.

The EU's climate monitor warned last week that 2026 would most likely be the second-hottest year ever recorded while scientists say 2027 could top the chart, fuelled by El Nino.

The long-term outlook is bleak: the United Nations warned in September that global temperatures were on course to exceed 1.5C above preindustrial levels, breaching the most ambitious threshold set by the Paris Agreement.

Turkiye is presiding over COP31, with Australia leading negotiations. The partners have branded the summit as the "implementation COP", focusing on turning commitments into concrete action after years of pledges and ambitious announcements.

Turkiye is promoting an "action agenda" alongside the formal negotiations that encourages countries to support non-binding pledges on issues from artificial intelligence to waste management. Its centrepiece is an "electrification" drive to raise the share of global energy demand met by electricity from around 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035.