Three COP presidencies meet at UN Headquarters as the world tracks towards 2.8 degrees of warming
18 October 2026
Representatives of three successive UN climate summit presidencies met at United Nations Headquarters less than a month before COP31 opens in Antalya, Turkiye.
The high-level meeting was opened by the President of the General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman.
He said scientists had long warned that disasters such as the devastation in Nepal were becoming a reality.
He told delegates that this year's strengthening El Nino could be among the strongest since at least 1950.
Under current climate policies the world is on its way to warming by 2.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, far beyond the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The meeting was framed around restoring trust in climate action.
In plain words
COP Conference of the Parties — The annual meeting of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, where climate decisions are negotiated.