NEWS CENTER - Highlights from Minister Kurum's statements are as follows: My dear colleagues Andre and Chris, Executive Secretary Simon, esteemed delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I respectfully greet you all and welcome you to Antalya, Turkey.
Dear friends, as we meet in Antalya today, let's first look at the picture of the world we live in. We are faced with a rapidly changing world that is struggling with many challenges at the same time. Wars and geopolitical tensions continue; A world where trade routes, energy lines and supply chains are reshaped; where economic uncertainties, debt burden and high cost of living touch the daily lives of millions of people; A world where hundreds of millions of people have difficulty accessing food, a world where technology and artificial intelligence advance at a dizzying pace, while access to capital, information and technology continues to remain at great distances... And on top of all this; A world that is hotter, more fragile, more prone to disasters. Now different geographies of the world meet on the same climate calendar. The history of drought that begins in one place is written on the table in another. A river overflowing in one region changes the production schedule of factories thousands of kilometers away.
"WORDS ARE RUNNING OUT IN TODAY'S WORLD"
Decreasing water in a country has consequences that extend to the economy, migration movements and security of other societies. Extreme heat puts a strain on cities, agriculture and human health at the same time. The world is telling us something very clear: We are at ground zero.
That's why we're out of words in today's world. We have to act with this awareness. Because climate policy is also development policy. It is food policy. It is energy policy. It is city policy. And above all, it is the policy of protecting the future of man. This is exactly why we are in Antalya. In an age where crises magnify each other, we are here to establish solutions that reinforce each other. Our geographies may be different. Our conditions, opportunities and priorities may be different. But the world's climate calendar is common. A common calendar brings a shared responsibility. This is Antalya's call: to expand dialogue in a time when divisions increase, to rebuild trust in a time when trust is tested, to mobilize opportunities in a time when need grows, to close the distance between promises and people's lives. We want to make COP31 an Implementation COP for this.
Dear Friends, these lands have been a geography where roads have crossed, ideas have encountered, trade and cultures have touched each other for centuries. Today, we carry this historical talent to a new area: Bringing together the needs and opportunities of humanity. Because there are invisible distances in the world. There is a distance between those who have access to finance and those who cannot. There is a distance between those who have technology and those who need it. There is a distance between countries with strong resilience capacity and fragile societies.
The big task of climate diplomacy is to reduce these distances. Türkiye has been a bridge throughout history. Now, under the leadership of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it is ready to assume responsibility to bring together the expectations of the North and the South, developed countries and developing countries on a common ground. Along with Australia; It is ready to hear the voice of the Pacific and find solutions to the problems of fragile countries.
"LET'S ESTABLISH HISTORICAL COOPERATION IN ANTALYA"
We know that; One of the most expensive costs of climate action is delay. Resilience investment postponed today may turn into tomorrow's disaster cost. Adaptation funding not arriving today could magnify tomorrow's humanitarian crisis. That's why we have to bring the cost of the future to today's decisions. The 1.5 degree target continues to show our way. We will talk openly about the facts revealed by science. We will bring the voices of the most vulnerable countries and communities to the center of our agenda. And the real life of the decisions we made in Antalya will begin the moment they leave these halls. From here, I call on all countries, peoples and young people: Let's establish a historical cooperation together in Antalya. Let's turn words into results. Let's turn decisions into investments. Let's put knowledge into action. A decision must live in the infrastructure of a city. He must live on a farmer's land. He must live on the production line of a factory. It should translate into an improvement in a family's energy bill. Because the real value of a decision is revealed when it touches human life.
Dear Friends, there are three concepts at the center of our COP31 Presidency approach: Dialogue. Compromise. Action. We will listen to each other first. Then we will expand the common ground. Then we will bring that common will to the field. There is information in the world. There is technology.
There is capital. There is human resources. The point is that they reach the right place, the right person, at the right time. The last mile of climate action is sometimes the field of a farmer tending to his drying soil. Sometimes it is the coast of a small island state facing the rising sea. Sometimes it is the street of a city struggling with extreme heat. Success begins where the decision reaches that last mile.
This is why we attach importance to the Zero Waste concept. Zero Waste Movement led by Mrs. Emine Erdoğan; It makes protecting resources, reducing waste, and increasing efficiency a part of daily life. We see our children and youth as the strongest carriers of this transformation. Because a habit acquired today turns into the culture of tomorrow. We take the same approach to energy transformation. With our 35 by 35 Global Electrification Commitment, we have set the goal of increasing the share of electricity in final energy consumption to 35 percent by 2035. Renewable energy, strong networks, storage capacity, energy efficiency, clean transportation and green industry are complementary parts of this transformation. The results of the climate talks in people's daily lives; We want to see new job opportunities. Of course, all this requires a strong financing architecture. But besides finance, we need another infrastructure: Trust. Because trust is also a climate infrastructure. For a country to see the value of its promises, to access the resources it needs, to receive the promised financing on time, and to believe that the decisions taken will be implemented...
This is the invisible infrastructure of global cooperation. In Baku, an agreement was reached on an annual climate finance target of at least 300 billion dollars for developing countries by 2035. A call was made to increase public and private resources to at least 1.3 trillion dollars annually. Now is the time for words to turn into capital, capital to investment, investment to results. When we look at the needs map of the world today, we see a picture. When we look at the map of capital, technology, knowledge and expertise, we see a different picture. We want to overlap these two maps. We will bring together the investor with the project seeking financing… The solution owner with the country in need of technology… We will bring together local need and global capacity. This is the purpose of the Climate Implementation Bridge. We will bring the opportunity where it is needed and the responsibility where it is possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, we do not want to leave a list of decisions from Antalya. We want to leave a work culture. Countries that listen to each other… Institutions that trust each other… Scientists who share their knowledge… Entrepreneurs who develop solutions… Companies that take responsibility… Financial institutions that mobilize their resources… In Belém, Brazil told us about the muçiaro spirit. In our culture, this has a strong equivalent that has been around for centuries: imece. Imece means that everyone steps up to the plate where one person is unable to do so. Imece means sharing hope as well as sharing the burden.
This is exactly what the world needs today. We need the knowledge of every country, the experience of every society, the energy of every generation, the capacity of every institution. And we want that when Antalya is remembered years later, it will be talked about what works were started before what sentences were made here. Let's remember which investments took action... Which technologies crossed borders... Which cities gained resilience... Which child looks to the future with more confidence.
May Antalya's legacy be greater than our words. An Antalya that reduces invisible distances… An Antalya that brings together need and opportunity… An Antalya that replaces delay with action… An Antalya that brings climate action to people's lives. Let's pave the way together, from dialogue to consensus, from consensus to action, from action to practice, from practice to people's lives, in the spirit of imece. Because the strongest message we will give here today is this: If the world will share a common future, it will also bear the responsibility of that future together.
I would like to express my gratitude to our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Ms. Emine Erdoğan, who gave strong support to this process. Especially UN Secretary General Antonyo Guteres; To Executive Director Simon Still, the Climate Secretariat, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Government; I would like to thank my dear friend Chris Bowen, our teams, the people of Antalya and our volunteers. I greet you all with respect.
