Scotland’s Climate Action Secretary Gillian Martin has set out plans to attend COP31 in Antalya next month, placing fairer access to climate finance, greater support for loss and damage and reform of the global debt system at the centre of her programme.
The United Nations climate conference is due to run from 9 to 20 November. It brings together national governments and a wider group of regional administrations, civil-society organisations, businesses, scientists, young people and Indigenous representatives. Scotland’s participation will sit alongside the formal negotiations, where national governments are the parties to the UN climate convention.
Martin’s stated focus is on the way money reaches communities already dealing with climate impacts. The intended call is not simply for larger sums but for funding that is fairer and easier for affected communities to access. The programme also places emphasis on locally led action and on the participation of women, disabled people and Indigenous Peoples in climate solutions.
Finance, loss and damage and debt
The planned intervention joins together three related issues. Climate finance can support action to cut emissions and adapt to changing conditions, but the design of funds and the route by which they reach communities can matter as much as headline commitments. Scotland will press for more accessible finance for communities facing the sharpest effects of climate change.
Loss and damage is a separate part of that discussion. It concerns harm that cannot be fully avoided through reducing emissions or adapting to climate risks, including cases in which homes are destroyed or livelihoods are lost. Martin intends to seek increased funding in this area and to encourage the deployment of the UN fund for responding to loss and damage so that programmes can reach affected communities.
The Scottish Government has delivered £36 million for climate justice during the last parliamentary term, including £10 million for loss and damage. Work supported through that loss-and-damage funding has included programmes in East Africa, the Pacific, the Andean Highlands and the Bay of Bengal. Those figures describe support already delivered; they do not amount to a commitment that any other government or international fund will match the level of funding requested at COP31.
Debt is the third strand of the agenda. Martin will call for reform of the global debt system, arguing that unsustainable repayments can restrict investment by climate-vulnerable countries in resilience, health, education and infrastructure. That is a policy objective rather than an agreed reform. Decisions on sovereign debt arrangements rest with governments, creditors and international institutions, and no debt-system change has been agreed through this announcement.
Regional role at the summit
The visit is also intended to highlight Scotland’s role in community-led climate action. Martin plans to take part in the Subnational Investment Forum and a meeting of the Regions4 Board of Chairs, and to work with partners in the Global South to raise priorities in the wider COP programme. Events on loss and damage, adaptation and disability inclusion are also planned.
Scotland currently holds the presidency of Regions4, a network of regional and subnational governments, and Martin is the outgoing European co-chair of the Under2 coalition. Those roles give the administration a platform for collaboration and advocacy, but they do not give it the power to determine the outcome of the negotiations. Any agreement on finance, loss and damage or wider climate action will depend on decisions taken by the countries participating in the UN process.
That distinction will be important as the conference approaches. The announced priorities show where Scotland intends to use its voice: backing locally led action, seeking more support for communities affected by climate impacts and arguing that the international financial system should not prevent vulnerable countries from investing in resilience. Whether those aims translate into new commitments or changes to existing arrangements remains to be decided at and beyond COP31.
