EU seeks climate emissions agreement at COP31 in Antalya

The European Union will use next month's COP31 climate summit to push for agreement on a "package" of efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas ​emissions heating the planet, an internal EU document seen by Reuters showed.

Even ‌as the world suffers extreme weather due to climate change, governments at recent UN climate talks have failed to agree to tougher action - with large emerging economies and fossil fuel producers concerned about ​the impact of such measures on their growth and development.

At COP31 in Türkiye ​in November, the EU will push for a "mitigation package" focussed on ⁠reducing emissions, by turning countries' existing climate pledges into real-world actions, a draft EU ​document showed.

A key EU demand will be to extend until 2040 the segment in ​UN climate negotiations where governments discuss how to reduce emissions, and identify areas where more can be done, the document said. This negotiation track - known as the "mitigation work programme" - is due to expire ​this year.

The EU will also push for countries to respond to the UN's confirmation ​last month that the world will miss the 2015 Paris agreement's target to limit global warming to ‌1.5C, ⁠the document said. It was drafted by Ireland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.