Cop31: Political will the only thing holding us back in climate change struggle

At the Cop31 in Turkey, I was introduced to a phrase that caught my attention: ‘Implementalya’ — a call to move beyond ambition and start delivering, right here in Antalya, writes UCC research fellow Vahid Aryanpur

Dr Vahid Aryanpur, a principal investigator and research fellow at University College Cork, in Antalya, Türkiye for the UN climate change summit Cop31. 'I leave these discussions with a realistic sense of the challenges, but also considerable optimism.'

One thing has stood out over the past few days at Cop31 in Antalya: the energy transition is not held back by a lack of technology or ambition, but by the political will to make difficult decisions and turn ambition into action.

I saw this in two moments. During a high-level discussion, Brazil's representative expressed optimism about the country's new political leadership and its environmental direction.