AFP
June 9, 2026
Electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly with electric alternatives. – Copyright AFP Tobias SCHWARZ
COP31 hosts Turkey urged countries Tuesday to join a voluntary push to make electricity account for 35 percent of global energy demand by 2035 as it outlined its priorities for the UN climate talks.
The November summit in Antalya is taking shape as the Middle East conflict roils global energy markets, exposing fossil fuel importers to price spikes and supply shortages.
The electrification target unveiled in Bonn was “a flagship initiative” of COP31 that could respond to this crisis and help insulate economies from fossil fuel price shocks, the Turkish conference organisers said in a statement.
Thousands of climate negotiators are in Bonn this week and next to draft agreements and lay the groundwork for the final decisions taken by political leaders at the summit due to start November 9.
Turkey said raising the global share of energy demand met by electricity from roughly 20 percent to 35 percent by 2035 would speed up the shift from fossil fuels to renewable power.
“By electrifying daily life, from transport to buildings and industry, we can protect families and businesses from volatile energy markets,” incoming COP31 president Murat Kurum said in a statement.
The goal will not require formal agreement by the nearly 200 nations taking part in the annual talks because it is part of the voluntary program that runs alongside the binding negotiations.
This so-called “action agenda” encourages countries to join non-binding pledges and other initiatives to turn commitments made at the UN-sponsored climate talks into action on the ground.
– Clean switch –
In simple terms, electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly — such as gas heating systems and diesel vehicles — with electric alternatives.
But for electrification to drive down heat-trapping emissions and tackle climate change, the extra electricity must come primarily from renewable sources — rather than fossil fuels.
“If you electrify and you increase coal, then what are you doing?” veteran COP observer and E3G analyst Alden Meyer told AFP in Bonn.
“You do need to both expand electrification and squeeze fossil fuels out of the electricity system at the same time.”
The electrification target unveiled by Turkey did not explicitly state how that extra power should be produced.
In 2025, renewables reached 34 percent of global electricity generation, overtaking coal’s 33 percent share for the first time in 100 years, according to energy think tank Ember.
Australia, which is steering the formal negotiations in a COP31 co-hosting arrangement with Turkey, said electrification could cut emissions and shore up energy security.
“I see them as different sides of the same coin. Electrification reduces the need for fossil fuels,” COP31 negotiations chief Chris Bowen, who is also Australia’s climate and energy minister, told AFP in an interview in Bonn on Monday.
COP31 hosts Turkey urged countries Tuesday to join a voluntary push to make electricity account for 35 percent of global energy demand by 2035 as it outlined its priorities for the UN climate talks.
The November summit in Antalya is taking shape as the Middle East conflict roils global energy markets, exposing fossil fuel importers to price spikes and supply shortages.
The electrification target unveiled in Bonn was “a flagship initiative” of COP31 that could respond to this crisis and help insulate economies from fossil fuel price shocks, the Turkish conference organisers said in a statement.
Thousands of climate negotiators are in Bonn this week and next to draft agreements and lay the groundwork for the final decisions taken by political leaders at the summit due to start November 9.
Turkey said raising the global share of energy demand met by electricity from roughly 20 percent to 35 percent by 2035 would speed up the shift from fossil fuels to renewable power.
“By electrifying daily life, from transport to buildings and industry, we can protect families and businesses from volatile energy markets,” incoming COP31 president Murat Kurum said in a statement.
The goal will not require formal agreement by the nearly 200 nations taking part in the annual talks because it is part of the voluntary program that runs alongside the binding negotiations.
This so-called “action agenda” encourages countries to join non-binding pledges and other initiatives to turn commitments made at the UN-sponsored climate talks into action on the ground.
– Clean switch –
In simple terms, electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly — such as gas heating systems and diesel vehicles — with electric alternatives.
But for electrification to drive down heat-trapping emissions and tackle climate change, the extra electricity must come primarily from renewable sources — rather than fossil fuels.
“If you electrify and you increase coal, then what are you doing?” veteran COP observer and E3G analyst Alden Meyer told AFP in Bonn.
“You do need to both expand electrification and squeeze fossil fuels out of the electricity system at the same time.”
The electrification target unveiled by Turkey did not explicitly state how that extra power should be produced.
In 2025, renewables reached 34 percent of global electricity generation, overtaking coal’s 33 percent share for the first time in 100 years, according to energy think tank Ember.
Australia, which is steering the formal negotiations in a COP31 co-hosting arrangement with Turkey, said electrification could cut emissions and shore up energy security.
“I see them as different sides of the same coin. Electrification reduces the need for fossil fuels,” COP31 negotiations chief Chris Bowen, who is also Australia’s climate and energy minister, told AFP in an interview in Bonn on Monday.
‘We need to get off fossil fuels’ says COP31 negotiations chief
AFP
June 8, 2026
AFP
June 8, 2026
Australia’s Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will preside over the UN climate negotiations at the COP31 summit in Turkey in November. – Copyright Ritzau Scanpix/AFP Sebastian Elias Uth
The incoming COP31 negotiations president said on Monday that the Middle East war underscored the need to “get off fossil fuels” and rejected criticism the UN climate summit was losing relevance.
Chris Bowen, who is also Australia’s climate and energy minister, said fresh anxiety around global fuel supplies as Iran and Israel launched new strikes only “proves the risks” of fossil fuel dependence.
“The good news is: the answer for the short-term crisis and the long-term crisis are effectively the same: i.e. move away from a reliance on an energy source which… is only going to get more unreliable,” Bowen told AFP in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the UN midyear climate sessions in Bonn.
“We need to get off fossil fuels,” he added.
But he stopped short of saying how his stewardship of the November talks would break a stalemate around fossil fuels that has plagued recent COPs and sparked a revolt at the last summit in Brazil.
Bowen is contending not just with an historic oil shock but an energised coalition of nations demanding a faster phaseout of fossil fuels — the main driver of human-caused global warming.
COP31 is being organised and chaired by Turkey but Bowen is steering the marathon talks under an unusual arrangement struck after Canberra and Ankara competed to host the world’s most important climate summit.
In the months ahead, he must lay the groundwork for consensus between nearly 200 nations even as the war rattles energy markets, nations scramble for fuel supply and climate change slips down the priority list.
Bonn is where government negotiators meet every June to hammer out technical details and narrow differences over global climate action before leaders tackle the bigger decisions at COP31.
“We’re talking to parties about what they want to see, and we’ll try and steer that to a very strong outcome,” said Bowen, who attended the last four COPs as a minister in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left government.
Last year’s summit in Brazil ended with a modest pact that failed to explicitly mention fossil fuels and many nations fear a repeat unless stronger leadership is shown.
On Monday, the climate-vulnerable Alliance of Small Island States said countries could not keep ignoring “the elephant in the room” and warned that anything short of winding down fossil fuels was “papering over the cracks”.
Frustrated by a lack of progress at the last summit, nearly 60 nations attended a world-first meeting in Colombia in April dedicated to speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels — outside the UN process.
Bowen said the breakaway conference in Santa Marta was “a positive contribution” — but did not say how their concerns might be incorporated into a final negotiated outcome.
“Consensus arrives in November with hard work. I didn’t take this job because I thought it’d be easy, I didn’t come here to do the easy things. I took this job because it is hard,” he said.
Many countries have criticised the consensus-based model by which decisions at COPs can be blocked by a small handful of countries but Bowen said “that’s what we’ve got. And that’s not going to change”.
He said countries big and small remained in some way dependent on fossil fuels — including Australia, a major coal and gas exporter, yet highly reliant on imports for petrol, diesel and other fuels.
Bowen cancelled his first trip abroad as COP31 negotiations chief in April when an oil refinery caught fire in Australia.
“Historically, Australia is without doubt a climate villain, but it can also use its status as a major fossil fuel producer to lead the conversation on transitioning away from fossil fuels,” Simon Bradshaw, COP31 lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, told AFP in Bonn.
Bowen said every country “has a fossil fuel profile” and that “we’re all in this together”.
“It’s not all the job of importers. It’s not all the job of exporters. That’s what a COP is for — bring all parties together.”
The COPs “send a signal to the rest of the world” that the issue is being taken seriously, he said.
“We need to give a very positive signal. I’m confident we can,” he said.
The incoming COP31 negotiations president said on Monday that the Middle East war underscored the need to “get off fossil fuels” and rejected criticism the UN climate summit was losing relevance.
Chris Bowen, who is also Australia’s climate and energy minister, said fresh anxiety around global fuel supplies as Iran and Israel launched new strikes only “proves the risks” of fossil fuel dependence.
“The good news is: the answer for the short-term crisis and the long-term crisis are effectively the same: i.e. move away from a reliance on an energy source which… is only going to get more unreliable,” Bowen told AFP in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the UN midyear climate sessions in Bonn.
“We need to get off fossil fuels,” he added.
But he stopped short of saying how his stewardship of the November talks would break a stalemate around fossil fuels that has plagued recent COPs and sparked a revolt at the last summit in Brazil.
Bowen is contending not just with an historic oil shock but an energised coalition of nations demanding a faster phaseout of fossil fuels — the main driver of human-caused global warming.
COP31 is being organised and chaired by Turkey but Bowen is steering the marathon talks under an unusual arrangement struck after Canberra and Ankara competed to host the world’s most important climate summit.
In the months ahead, he must lay the groundwork for consensus between nearly 200 nations even as the war rattles energy markets, nations scramble for fuel supply and climate change slips down the priority list.
Bonn is where government negotiators meet every June to hammer out technical details and narrow differences over global climate action before leaders tackle the bigger decisions at COP31.
“We’re talking to parties about what they want to see, and we’ll try and steer that to a very strong outcome,” said Bowen, who attended the last four COPs as a minister in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left government.
Last year’s summit in Brazil ended with a modest pact that failed to explicitly mention fossil fuels and many nations fear a repeat unless stronger leadership is shown.
On Monday, the climate-vulnerable Alliance of Small Island States said countries could not keep ignoring “the elephant in the room” and warned that anything short of winding down fossil fuels was “papering over the cracks”.
Frustrated by a lack of progress at the last summit, nearly 60 nations attended a world-first meeting in Colombia in April dedicated to speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels — outside the UN process.
Bowen said the breakaway conference in Santa Marta was “a positive contribution” — but did not say how their concerns might be incorporated into a final negotiated outcome.
“Consensus arrives in November with hard work. I didn’t take this job because I thought it’d be easy, I didn’t come here to do the easy things. I took this job because it is hard,” he said.
Many countries have criticised the consensus-based model by which decisions at COPs can be blocked by a small handful of countries but Bowen said “that’s what we’ve got. And that’s not going to change”.
He said countries big and small remained in some way dependent on fossil fuels — including Australia, a major coal and gas exporter, yet highly reliant on imports for petrol, diesel and other fuels.
Bowen cancelled his first trip abroad as COP31 negotiations chief in April when an oil refinery caught fire in Australia.
“Historically, Australia is without doubt a climate villain, but it can also use its status as a major fossil fuel producer to lead the conversation on transitioning away from fossil fuels,” Simon Bradshaw, COP31 lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, told AFP in Bonn.
Bowen said every country “has a fossil fuel profile” and that “we’re all in this together”.
“It’s not all the job of importers. It’s not all the job of exporters. That’s what a COP is for — bring all parties together.”
The COPs “send a signal to the rest of the world” that the issue is being taken seriously, he said.
“We need to give a very positive signal. I’m confident we can,” he said.
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