BRUSSELS — The hosts of this year’s United Nations climate conference want the world’s governments to support a collective target to electrify 35 percent of global energy use by 2035.
Turkey, which will host the COP31 summit in the resort city of Antalya in November, said Tuesday the electrification goal would be a flagship priority of the conference, linking the push to soaring fossil fuel costs caused by the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
“By electrifying daily life, from transport to buildings and industry, we can protect families and businesses from volatile energy markets,” Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister and COP31 president, said in a statement.
“This ‘35% by 2035’ target will be one of the defining priorities of our COP31 presidency,” he added. “We will work to bring together a strong global coalition that is ready and determined to act in support of this objective.”
The plans are part of the summit’s so-called action agenda, which is designed to coordinate voluntary climate commitments, rather than the formal negotiations that require consensus from the nearly 200 governments in attendance.
Some action agenda items — such as the COP28 target to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 — have in the past found their way into the conference’s consensus agreement by the end of the summit. The Turkish presidency said that its electrification target was meant to complement the COP28 renewables goal.
Australia, which is co-hosting the summit with Turkey and is in charge of the formal negotiations, backed Kurum’s proposal.
“Accelerating the energy transition will ease shocks to our energy systems, better protect our economies and households from high costs, and help keep bending the curve of emissions downwards,” Australian Climate Minister Chris Bowen said in a statement.
“That’s why electrifying the global economy is one of our practical priorities for COP31 — because it’s the fastest way to strengthen energy security, cut emissions and bring down costs,” he added.
The target figure comes from a recent report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, which said that increasing the share of final energy demand met by electricity from 20 percent today to 35 percent by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050 is key to meeting the Paris Agreement targets.
IRENA director Francesco La Camera said in a statement that his agency and the COP31 presidency were working closely together. “Every economy that accelerates electrification with renewables can reduce its exposure to imported fuel price volatility while strengthening its economic competitiveness,” he added.
Besides the electrification goal, the Turkish presidency is also asking countries to support two additional targets for COP31 — one to halve the increase in global waste by 2035, and another to increase energy efficiency in buildings by at least 25 percent by 2035.
The U.N. climate change body welcomed the Turkish electrification initiative.
“Rewiring the global economy is crucial to kick the world’s addiction to coal, oil and gas, to bring energy costs down, and to restore energy security,” said U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell. “Now’s the time to step up the pace and scale of electrification, as the current fossil fuel cost crisis shows so painfully.”