COP31 opens in Antalya as leaders skip UN climate summit

World leaders gathered Wednesday at COP31 in Antalya, Turkiye, but several prominent figures are absent from the UN climate summit, which opened amid intensifying global warming pressures. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is the only G7 leader scheduled to speak, while French, German, Italian, Canadian, and Japanese leaders are skipping the event. EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra acknowledged "expectations are not necessarily high" for the conference. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are not attending, though Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is present. Host Turkiye is promoting a voluntary initiative to raise electricity's share of global energy consumption to 35% by 2035.