European Commission President Ursula von der LEYEN in Antalya, Türkiye for the COP31
11 November 2026
Contents updated at 06:02
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
European Commission
Follow its sittings00:21 - 02:15
Speaker 1
President Erdoğan, thank you for your wonderful hospitality and the excellent organization of the COP. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, our first climate duty is to tell the truth. And the brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us. Emissions in 2025 reached all-time highs. Heat records keep shattering.
The last four years were the hottest ever. And fossil fuel interests keep making a killing while killing our planet. Climate disasters are pounding lives, livelihoods, and economies across the globe. And this is the path to mutually assured destruction. Now, 11 years ago in Paris, the world pledged to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
But science tells us an overshoot above that level is now inevitable. But science is not telling us to surrender. It's telling us to fight harder. The truth is that we have the power to determine how high, how long, and how devastating that overshoot will be. We have the power to make sure the overshoot is a temporary breach, not a permanent sentence.
But that demands leadership. We know the truth. Now we must act on it. Because climate action is more than a fight over a number or a thermometer. We are in the fight for our lives and our children's future.
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.