This year’s climate summit (COP31) began on Monday in Antalya, Turkey, where the major UN conference will run for two weeks. 190 countries are taking part, but the US is absent, and several other countries, such as Germany, have chosen not to send their heads of government.
On the same day, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is hosting COP31, announced the development of two new oil fields that have been discovered in the south-eastern part of the country, according to a DPA report published in Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Climate conferences are attracting less interest and receiving less media coverage than before, and they are generating less enthusiasm and hope amongst climate activists.
Erdogan is not the first to make a flippant remark in this context:
The remarks are reminiscent of the much-criticised speech delivered by Azerbaijan’s head of state, Ilham Aliyev, at the opening of COP29 two years ago in Baku. At the time, Aliyev described Azerbaijan’s oil and gas reserves as a ‘gift from God’ and emphasised that no country should be blamed for exploiting these resources.
In a post on X on Monday, the Turkish president wrote:
There is more good news from the Gabar Mountains.
We have discovered oil in two further new fields in the region, and production began in October at the fields we have named Gaziler and Çardaklı.
According to our preliminary assessments, these two new fields have a potential of 135 million barrels of oil in reserve.
With field development activities in Gabar and the commissioning of new wells, the region’s daily oil production will increase by 30 per cent.
In the second half of 2027, with approximately 230 wells, our daily production in the region will exceed 100,000 barrels.
A daily production of 120,000 barrels equates to an annual contribution of 4.4 billion dollars to our economy, calculated at current prices.
May this bring blessings to our country and our nation.
Encouraging news continues to emerge from the mountains of Gabar.
We have discovered oil in two further new fields in the region; production began in October in the fields we have named Gaziler and Çardaklı.
According to our initial assessments, these two new fields contain 135 million barrels of in-place oil… pic.twitter.com/ZeRyLQWV2L
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) 9 November 2026
Climate policymakers and activists around the world are working to ensure that humanity’s net greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to zero by 2050. Meanwhile, emissions are rising, primarily because many developing countries are using more fossil fuels in their energy production.
Activists believe this will lead to catastrophic global warming – a prospect disputed by both the Trump administration and a host of scientists.
