The hosts of COP 31 are urging the world to accelerate electrification to 35% of total final energy consumption by 2035.
The Turkish government – co-president with Australia of the fortnight-long climate change summit, which opened this week in the coastal resort of Antalya – is asking governments to sign up to a Global Electrification Pledge.
This aims to raise electricity’s share of final energy consumption from around 23% today to 35% by 2035, by electrifying transport, buildings and industry.
As part of the initiative, the International Energy Agency will lead the Global Electrification Tracking Mechanism to monitor global and regional electrification trends.
In his keynote speech in Antalya, Prime Minister Andy Burnham reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to its 2050 net zero emissions target, but the summit is taking place against a backdrop of mounting evidence that the pace of global warming is accelerating.
The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate Update 2026, published to coincide with the start of COP 31, shows that the past 12 years have been the warmest on record, with the past four years being the top four.
The global average surface temperature for January to September 2026 was about 1.47 °C above the pre-industrial average. This is likely to rise through the end of the year because of the intensification of the El Niño warming effect on temperatures since August.
Over the past two decades, however, the EU has made ‘substantial progress’ towards climate neutrality, while reducing its dependence on imported fossil fuels, according to a new report by the European Environment Agency, also published this week.
Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen, deployment of renewable energy has accelerated and energy consumption has become more efficient across the EU, the report says.
