Addis Ababa, November 10, 2026 (FMC) – Rebuilding confidence in multilateral climate cooperation through tangible delivery, inclusive processes and outcomes that connect global ambition with national implementation is a central priority for Ethiopia as it prepares to assume the COP32 presidency, Foreign Minister and COP32 President-Designate Gedion Timothewos (PhD) declared.
Addressing the first-day engagements of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, the Foreign Minister underscored the urgency of collective action at a time when intensifying climate impacts are coinciding with geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty and growing constraints on international cooperation.
He observed that competition over technology, investment and trade was increasingly undermining climate action, while countries were expected to raise their ambitions on emissions reduction and resilience-building despite increasingly difficult financing conditions.
Referring to scientific assessments by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Foreign Minister stressed the urgency of limiting global temperature overshoot, closing adaptation gaps and responding to irreversible loss and damage.
He emphasized that progress in addressing mitigation and adaptation gaps would remain constrained unless the financing gap was also addressed, underscoring the centrality of adequate climate finance to the implementation of global commitments.
The Foreign Minister expressed Ethiopia’s solidarity with countries bearing the adverse impacts of climate change and reaffirmed the country’s readiness to support the COP31 presidency in delivering a successful conference.
He congratulated the Government and people of Türkiye for hosting the conference, commended Türkiye and Australia for their respective leadership of the COP31 presidency and negotiations, and acknowledged Brazil’s COP30 presidency for the outcomes achieved in Belém.
He stressed that COP31 must translate into progress across the interconnected agendas of mitigation, adaptation, finance, just transitions and the means of implementation.
The Foreign Minister also identified the Antalya conference as the beginning of an important process leading to the second Global Stocktake (GST2), emphasizing the need for a collective assessment of implementation gaps, the reasons behind uneven progress and the obstacles that international cooperation must help countries overcome.
For Ethiopia, as the incoming COP32 presidency, the priority is to help restore confidence in the multilateral climate process through meaningful delivery, inclusive engagement, constructive handling of differences and outcomes that translate global commitments into action at national level.
He concluded that climate cooperation should become a source of greater global cohesion, reaffirming the importance of collective determination and coordinated action in confronting the climate crisis.