Erdogan condemns Gaza 'ecocide' at Cop31 climate summit in Turkey

Gaza has suffered an ecocide as well as a genocide, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday during his opening address at the Cop31 climate conference, which is being held in Antalya. “As I also emphasised in my address to the UN General Assembly, Gaza has suffered not only genocide but also ecocide,” Erdogan said of the Palestinian enclave, which has been subject to an Israeli onslaught since October 2023. “Centuries-old olive trees have been cut down, the soil and water have been contaminated, and cities have been reduced to enormous piles of rubble.” Erdogan said heavy rainfall and flooding had compounded the humanitarian suffering in Gaza, leaving tens of thousands of tents and shelters submerged. “Hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters in Gaza, with no roof under which to take shelter, especially innocent children trembling with cold, are struggling to survive amid the floodwaters in these winter conditions, often without their mothers or fathers,” he said. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The Turkish president called for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza immediately and for an end to the policy of isolation. Climate change is a deep existential crisis Turning to the broader climate crisis, Erdogan described climate change as “one of the deepest existential crises” in humanity’s history. “As humanity, our home has only one roof, and that is the sky. As humanity, our home has only one garden, and that is the Earth," he said. A displaced Palestinian man stands in a partially flooded tent camp during a rainy day in Gaza City, 7 November 2026 (Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters) “I want to say this very clearly: we have no other sky, no other Earth, no other seas, oceans or forests. “Yet today, driven in part by the greed of excessive consumption, humanity is experiencing perhaps one of the deepest existential crises in its history.” Erdogan added: “Before the world becomes uninhabitable, the most precious legacy we can leave to future generations will be a cleaner, greener, and fairer world.” Developed nations must finance climate action Elsewhere in his speech, Erdogan said that developed countries must take much more responsibility for the financing of measures to tackle the climate crisis. While there has been some agreement on what should be done, this has not been reflected in action - and in paying for that action - Erdogan told the UN's climate summit. Antonio Guterres, the outgoing UN secretary general, also addressed world leaders at the summit, warning that the slow international response to climate change had put the world on a path to destruction and that urgent action was needed. 'I want to say this very clearly: we have no other sky, no other Earth, no other seas, oceans or forests' - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” Guterres said, pointing to rising emissions, higher global temperatures and worsening climate-driven disasters. “This is the path to mutually assured destruction.” “But science is not telling us to surrender. It is telling us to fight harder,” he added. “Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs.” Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are seeking agreement on a plan to increase electricity’s share of global energy use and to revive stalled efforts to move away from fossil fuels. Oil and gas companies have recorded massive profits in the wake of the war on Iran, which has seen the price of fossil fuels skyrocket. War must not distract from climate, leaders say Speaking at the same session, Lula da Silva, recently re-elected as Brazil's president, said the momentum behind Cop31 had waned at the start of the year, while the climate crisis had disappeared from global leaders’ speeches and documents. “We started talking more about weapons and tariffs than the survival of future generations,” he said, adding that the planet could not be left at the mercy of hegemonic struggles. Turkey passes first 'far from ideal' climate change bill as heatwave ravages country Read More » Erdogan echoed Lula's comment, saying: “Wars, crises, migration, famine and poverty increase the need for international solidarity each day.” A UN report released last month found that the world was on course to exceed the warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) that countries agreed to pursue under the Paris Agreement, signed in 2016 to prevent the worst effects of climate change. This year has seen a series of extreme heatwaves across Western Europe, as well as a glacier collapse in Nepal that triggered a catastrophic flood, killing more than 1,450 people and leaving thousands missing. Held from 9 November to 20 November at the Cop31 venue in Antalya, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, the summit brings together 196 countries and the European Union. The US, the world's largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, has skipped the talks for the second year in a row after President Donald Trump withdrew his country from climate cooperation after he returned to office in 2025.