The International Telecommunication Union’s headquarters in Geneva, 12 November 2006. (Harlequinn16/Flickr)

UN telecoms agency goes to the polls as states and Big Tech vie for control of global connectivity. As the UN’s telecom agency kicks off its four-yearly summit, a last-minute shake-up hits the race to lead its radio and satellite sector, while Russia attempts a return to the organisation’s Council.

💼ILO CHIEF HOPEFULS Q&A. The governing board at the International Labour Organization will be grilling the two remaining candidates in the race today, after a Peruvian hopeful dropped out last week.

The incumbent director general, Togo’s Gilbert Houngbo, recently endorsed by the ITUC, the world’s largest trade union federation, competes against Spain’s labour minister, Yolanda Díaz.

Pitch. As a cash crisis caused by major donors failing to pay their dues looms over the agency, Houngbo argues he's the best person to steer it through challenging times while implementing reform plans. Díaz has emphasised the need to diversify funding sources.

A secret ballot will be held on 16 November to choose the next DG, whose term will begin next October.

🌍COP31 KICKS OFF. For the next two weeks, government representatives from nearly 200 countries, scientists, activists, Indigenous peoples and corporate lobbyists will meet at the global climate talks in the Turkish resort city of Antalya.

The dual presidency, held by coal trading partners Turkey and Australia, says the Cop will (again) be one of “implementation”, a designation already used by recent hosts to mean the sessions won’t include any new political commitments.

What’s on the agenda? Climate finance, which countries agreed two years ago needs to deliver $1.3 trillion annually, returns to the agenda amid belt-tightening among wealthier nations. On Sunday, Brazil's Cop30 presidency presented a report on how to achieve that target.

Also to be discussed is the issue of a just transition toward a cleaner economy, ensuring that workers who may be left out as fossil fuels go the way of dinosaurs are included.

Another key topic will be assessing how well countries are living up to their climate commitments – such as reducing dependence on fossil fuels, switching to alternative energy sources, stopping deforestation, and preparing for climate shocks – in a process that's called the Global Stocktake in Cop lingo.

Australia will chair and guide the formal Cop31 negotiations.

Voluntary commitments. Turkey, meanwhile, will be showcasing electrification and zero waste on this year’s Action Agenda, sort of global pet projects that host countries launch to mark their Cop legacy. In an effort to shift the focus away from Ankara's own fossil fuel addiction, the electrification drive sets a target of 35 per cent of all energy consumption from electricity by 2035. It now stands at 20 per cent globally.

Crisis mode. As negotiators sit down for talks, this year’s climate events, from record temperatures in Europe and southern Asia to the deadly glacial collapses in Nepal, will be fresh in their minds. Vulnerable countries will capitalise on that to revive calls for loss and damage funding.

UN agencies are now speaking confidently about an overshoot of the global temperature limits set by the Paris Agreement, with such climate disasters expected to become more frequent and intense.

This morning, the World Meteorological Organization releases its latest State of the Climate report, expected to put 2026 as one of the warmest on record, with a particularly strong El Niño ocean warming phenomenon compounding rising temperatures late this year.

Extreme climate risks. On Friday, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said nearly 90 million displaced people face extreme climate risks, including flooding, droughts and extreme heat. It called for climate financing for those communities, often also affected by conflict, which currently receive only 10 per cent of climate finance.

“For millions, climate change is not a distant threat. It is destroying shelters, undermining livelihoods and putting their hopes of rebuilding their lives at risk," said Antón Leis García, the agency’s assistant high commissioner for operations. "We cannot allow those who have already lost so much to be left behind in global climate action.”

Seeking solutions. Many will be breathing a sigh of relief in Antalya following the results of the elections in the US and Brazil, putting at bay the possibility of emboldening old climate deniers and electing new ones.

Just last week, Brazil, host to last year’s Cop, proposed a global “roadmap” to phase out fossil fuels, with an emphasis on implementing commitments.

It’s not to be confused with a plan decided in April in Santa Marta at an independent conference to phase out the fuels, amid growing frustration over the UN Cop cycle’s ability to spell that out clearly.

- By Paula Dupraz-Dobias