Overview
- The provisional speakers list for the Antalya leaders' summit shows about 80 heads of state or government, noticeably fewer than the more than 100 leaders who have appeared at past COP leaders' sessions.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the heads of state or government of France, Spain, Italy, Poland and Romania are not on the list while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to speak.
- Campaign groups and analysts described the low turnout as a missed opportunity and a 'low point of European climate diplomacy' after a summer of deadly heat in Germany that critics say should have made climate a top priority.
- EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said leader absences are 'not untypical' and emphasized that EU negotiators will press on in the formal negotiation phase of COP31.
- Observers point to Germany's fall to 25th in the Climate Change Performance Index as evidence of shrinking political focus on climate, a shift that could reduce Europe's leverage on finance, renewable markets and global rules.