With just two weeks to go before the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) opens in Turkey, many questions remain unanswered about financing mechanisms and electrification. What COP31 needs is not new commitments but the timely translation of existing pledges into action.

At the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA79) in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Hanta virus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship are only the latest crises facing a world in a dangerous period, with divisions due to conflict, economic turmoil, and climate change.

Amid increasingly extreme climate conditions, the agenda of the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31) continues to draw significant global attention. At the forefront is the urgent need to find effective solutions to save island nations facing the risk of disappearance.