Cities Take Centre Stage in COP31 Climate Talks

Milan is transforming from a heavily industrialised metropolis into a leader in urban green architecture and sustainability.

From flooded homes to melting Himalayan glaciers, the human cost of climate change took centre stage at COP31 on Thursday as world leaders focused on protecting cities and vulnerable communities, while activists urged governments to take stronger action.

Today at COP31

• Resilient cities: Leaders held a historic dialogue on housing, urban resilience and climate action.

• Leaders' Summit: Vulnerable countries demanded greater protection and access to climate finance.

• Negotiations: Divisions persisted over adaptation funding and accelerating climate action.

• Climate justice: Greta Thunberg joined activists from Nepal and Australia in demanding change.

• Disaster risk financing: A new UN platform aims to unlock more than $3 billion to protect 75 million people from climate shocks by 2030.

Climate change is often associated with images of melting glaciers, disappearing forests and devastating fires. But for millions of people living in cities, the crisis is increasingly reaching their doorsteps.

The signs are visible in floodwaters entering homes, unbearable heat inside poorly constructed buildings and neighbourhoods where inadequate drainage turns heavy rainfall into disasters.

“Perhaps we have to change … the imaginary when we talk and think about climate change,” UN-Habitat Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach told reporters on the sidelines of COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye.

Her message was clear: cities are on the front lines of climate change, and protecting them means protecting the people who live there.

A historic moment for cities

For the first time at a UN climate conference, the COP31 Leaders' Summit held a high-level dialogue dedicated to urban resilience, adaptation and climate action.

The meeting brought together national and local leaders, financial institutions and other partners to address a growing challenge: up to three billion people lack adequate housing, while more than one billion live in informal settlements, often exposed to floods, landslides and extreme heat.

In remarks delivered on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Rossbach stressed that housing must be at the heart of climate action.

“Housing is climate action. Urban planning is climate action. Access to basic services is climate action,” she said.

Speaking separately, she called for greater attention to poorer communities, particularly those living in informal settlements, who have fewer resources to prepare for disasters or recover from them.

Protecting these communities requires more than stronger buildings. It also means ensuring access to drainage, sanitation, electricity and water, supported by better urban planning and financing.

“We need systemic change,” Rossbach said, highlighting the importance of partnerships among governments, banks, businesses and communities.

There are signs of progress. A new UN-Habitat analysis found that 80 per cent of national climate plans now include well-developed urban measures, up from 50 per cent in the previous round.

However, cities need around $4.5 trillion in climate investment annually through 2030, while current financing covers only about one-fifth of that amount.

Rossbach described the meeting as a turning point, expressing hope that cities would gain a stronger voice in future negotiations and better access to financing.

Mayors step up

In another development, 69 mayors representing more than 250 million people committed to another year of climate action through the Yearly Offer of Action initiative, marking a 60 per cent increase from last year.

Their plans include flood-warning systems in Addis Ababa, London's first dedicated heat plan and incentives to improve the environmental performance of 400 commercial buildings in Melbourne.

World leaders confront the cost of climate disasters

On the second day of the Leaders' Summit, developing countries renewed their calls for support as they faced mounting climate-related losses.

Seychelles warned that recovering from increasingly destructive storms and floods could leave small countries trapped in debt, while Nepal highlighted the growing dangers facing mountain communities as glaciers melt and extreme weather intensifies.

After failing to secure a dedicated agenda item earlier in the week, Nepal, Bhutan and Kyrgyzstan joined Tajikistan and Pakistan in calling for greater protection of glaciers and mountain communities.

Nepal also proposed a “Sagarmatha to the Sea” partnership linking mountain and coastal communities, alongside stronger early-warning systems and climate finance.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced the country's first special representative for climate security, citing growing links between climate change, food insecurity, migration and conflict.

Negotiations remain deadlocked

In the negotiation rooms, delegates continued to grapple with disagreements over adaptation finance and the future of fossil fuels.

Small island nations called for faster emissions reductions, while fossil fuel-producing countries defended their development priorities, highlighting the challenges of reaching an agreement.

Some financial commitments emerged elsewhere. Philanthropic organisations announced more than $480 million to tackle methane and other powerful greenhouse gases, along with an additional $25 million to support emissions reductions in seven countries.

'No one is coming to our rescue'

Climate activist Greta Thunberg joined activists from Nepal and Australia in calling for climate justice at COP31.

“The climate crisis is already here and now and it is already a matter of life and death,” she told journalists, accusing political leaders of failing to confront the emergency.

“The actions from those in power here are completely detached from reality,” she said.

“The planet is not dying, it is being killed, and we know by who, and it's being killed by the very same people often thought to come to our rescue. No one is coming to our rescue.”

Beside her, Nepalese parliamentarian Sagar Dhakal recalled helping dig people out of the rubble after a deadly landslide near the Nepal-Tibet border earlier this year.

“I don't think there are words in the dictionary to describe it,” he said.

He then showed journalists a report about Switzerland, where authorities had monitored an unstable glacier and evacuated residents before a devastating collapse.

“Switzerland could do it because they had enough research and resources,” he said. “But Nepal couldn't do it.”

For communities living beneath the Himalayas, the contrast was clear: access to science, technology and early-warning systems can mean the difference between life and death.