The following is a transcript of a speech delivered by UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell at at the Leaders-Level Non-CO₂ Greenhouse Gases Summit at COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, on 12 November 2026.
Excellencies,
I thank the governments of China and the UK, and the COP30 and 31 Presidencies, for bringing us together on a vital issue.
In a world of suffocating disasters, action on methane offers breathing space.
It is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective ways to check global heating in the near-term. While boosting economies, harvests, and health.
Already, climate-driven destruction is wrecking lives, ripping livelihoods apart, and driving inflation.
The higher temperatures rise, the worse it's going to get.
Action on methane - and all super pollutants - provides relief.
Cuts provide rapid results.
Which are essential to limiting near-term temperature rise.
And keeping overshoot of the 1.5 limit as short and small as possible.
For small island states like mine, methane reduction buys us time.
It must be accompanied by rapid action on carbon dioxide to hold back even greater temperature rise.
And solutions are out there - across oil and gas, waste, and agriculture: Seventy percent of methane emissions in the oil and gas sector can be eliminated using existing technology - much of it at low or no net cost.
Seventy-five percent of methane reductions in the solid waste sector can even save money: that means the value of captured methane can outweigh investment.
The benefits of rolling out these solutions - faster and fairer - extend far beyond climate: to lower temperatures, greater efficiencies, and cleaner air. Which means stronger harvests, lower costs, and lives saved.
UNEP and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition find that every dollar invested in key super-pollutant solutions delivers $15 in economic gains alone. The business case is absolutely clear.
In oil and gas production, 167 billion cubic metres are flared every year.
That's $54 billion in lost energy value.
And that's money going up in smoke.
Countries are increasingly aware of these benefits.
Over 90% of parties, representing around three quarters of global methane emissions, have included measures to reduce them in their new national climate plans - or NDCs.
The task now is to turn those plans into action.
COP31 can help deliver the practical solutions countries need to do so, and build momentum, including through the COP Presidency targets on methane and waste.
Initiatives like the Super Pollutant Country Action Accelerator, provide nations with vital support.
All of you can play a critical role. So I ask you: First, make methane and other super-pollutants a priority. Including targets in your national climate plans.
Back them up with policies for key sectors.
And urge industries to invest in technologies and solutions.
Second, use your power to boost public and private finance.
Particularly, through development banks and climate funds.
In 2023, just half a percent of the climate finance earmarked for emissions reductions, went to super pollutants.
Third, invest in institutions, technical capacity and project pipelines.
And fourth, use the new UN carbon market - the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism - which is up and running.
One of the first areas it's targeted is landfill methane - rewarding solutions that capture it, and put it to use.
So excellencies,
Super pollutants are a supersize opportunity. And it's low hanging.
For the climate, for economies, and for human health.
So let's take advantage of it.
I thank you.
