Turkey did not invite Israel to COP31 over actions in Gaza — Jerusalem Post
Turkey did not invite Israel to the COP31 climate summit in Antalya. As the Jerusalem Post reports, Turkish Environment Minister and conference president Murat Kurum explained this by Israel's actions in Gaza.
According to Kurum, Turkey, as the host country of the leaders' summit, did not send Israel an invitation. He said the conference would discuss climate and climate justice, which, in his view, are impossible without peace.
In a comment to The National, Palestinian Environment Quality Authority head Zaghloul Samhan called Israel's exclusion a political rather than a technical issue.
Climate negotiations and geopolitics
Negotiators representing nearly 200 countries are discussing a Turkish proposal to increase electricity's share of global energy consumption and renew efforts to phase out fossil fuels. At the same time, speeches by world leaders at the conference largely focused on geopolitical conflicts.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that the pace of international climate efforts had slowed after COP30. According to him, world leaders are increasingly talking about weapons and tariffs rather than the survival of future generations.
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action over the climate crisis. He said the international community's slow response had put the world on a destructive path. According to the UN report mentioned in the article, the world is heading toward exceeding the 2.7-degree Fahrenheit warming threshold agreed under the Paris Agreement.
Erdoğan's statements and Iran's participation
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also criticized Israel over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. He accused Israel of obstructing the delivery of containers for Palestinians displaced by the conflict and forced to live in tents after heavy rains.
The Israel Defense Forces said earlier this week that 91,000 tents and more than 8,200 trucks carrying winter supplies had been delivered to Gaza.
Unlike Israel, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took part in the summit. According to the Iranian government, he used meetings at COP31 to voice Tehran's grievances against Israel and the United States. The United States was not represented at the conference.
