The global pace of electrification should urgently increase, to fight climate change, president-designate of the forthcoming UN Cop 31 climate summit Murat Kurum said today at the Copenhagen climate ministerial in Denmark.
Kurum pointed to "electrification as a critical frontier of the transition", and called for more of the share of final energy consumption to be met by electricity. It stands at around 20pc, but increases to more than 27pc by 2030 in the net zero emissions scenario from energy watchdog the IEA.
"To achieve this mission, decarbonising power generation is essential. However, it is not enough", said Kurum, who is also Turkey's climate minister.
Several countries have made their biggest emissions reductions by decarbonising power — usually by closing coal-fired power plants and building up renewable energy capacity. It is typically a more achievable goal than the more fragmented task of decarbonising transport or domestic heating.
Turkey is hosting this year's Cop summit in Antalya, on 9-20 November, while Australia will lead negotiations. Kurum in April presented Turkey's action agenda for Cop 31, which focused on electrification, ramping up renewable energy and energy efficiency, climate finance, methane emissions reduction and clean cooking. But phasing out fossil fuels — the combustion of which is responsible for the majority of CO2 emissions — did not make the priority list.
The Copenhagen climate ministerial is hosted by the Danish government, along with Cop 30 president Andre Correa do Lago and Kurum. It is a private meeting, which allows the Cop presidency and country representatives to discuss priority topics for Cop, and the halfway point talks in June, hosted in Bonn, Germany, by UN climate body the UNFCCC.
The ministerial "is an opportunity for ministers to come together and discuss, debate, and forge a clearer collective vision for the road to Cop 31", said associate director of climate diplomacy and geopolitics at think-tank E3G Kaysie Brown.
