Plugged-in planet? COP31 host Turkey leads charge for electrification

Cover image: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva poses with attendees on the day of a meeting called Meeting with Civil Society at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Turkey, November 12, 2026. © Umit Bektas, Reuters

Issued on: 12/11/2026 -FRANCE24

Play (44:34 min)From the show

It's sweater weather in Paris. But even though November brings brisk temperatures and autumn foliage, it doesn't mean last summer's record heat should fade from our memories. One of the suggested reasons why students are so boiling mad is the hell they endured back in June in overheated classrooms and baking shoebox apartments.

The global warming issue is compounded by the war in the Gulf driving up prices at the pump and in stores. In this, an El Niño year where the whole planet is prey to extreme weather, the hosts of the annual UN climate summit in Turkey tout a remedy: turbo-charge the electrification of the world.

We ask about what they mean and whether it will work, particularly for the likes of India, whose carbon footprint is growing alongside its economy and its population. Many look at the smog this time of year and compare it with the China of the early 2000s. What lessons can Delhi learn from its neighbour's energy transition? China, meanwhile, remains the planet's manufacturing powerhouse.

Produced by 

François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Our guests

Yamina SAHEBCEO, World Sufficiency Lab

Thierry BROSVisiting professor at Sciences Po Paris

Sony KAPOORProfessor of Climate, Geoeconomics and Finance at the European University Institute in Florence

Joyeeta GUPTAProfessor of Environment & Development, University of Amsterdam