COP31 in Antalya: Leaders Meet as Türkiye Pushes a 35% Electrification Goal
COP31, the yearly UN climate summit, is being held in Antalya, Türkiye, from November 9 to 20, 2026. Türkiye is the host, while Australia leads (presides over) the negotiations.
The "high-level segment" (the part where heads of state and government give speeches) is taking place on November 11 and 12, 2026.
Several big leaders are absent. Only one G7 country's head of government (the United Kingdom's Prime Minister) is listed to speak. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan are not attending, though the European Commission President is.
The United States has left the Paris Agreement and has not sent officials to climate talks since its 2024 election. China is represented by its Vice President, not its President. The US and China are the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
Türkiye is promoting a voluntary initiative to electrify transport, buildings and industry. Its target is to raise electricity's share of global energy use to 35% by 2035.
The European Union says this electrification must be "clean" (powered by low-carbon sources). This may spark debate about the role of coal, oil and gas, since countries agreed in 2023 to "transition away" from fossil fuels but have struggled to take that goal forward.
UNFCCC and the Conference of the Parties (COP)
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the main world treaty on climate change, agreed in 1992. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the yearly meeting of all the countries that have joined it. The COP is the treaty's highest decision-making body. Big agreements like the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Paris Agreement (2015) were adopted at COPs.
COP31 is the 31st yearly meeting of the UNFCCC's Parties. The absence of many G7 leaders, the United States and China's top leader matters because COP outcomes need consensus, and the biggest emitters carry the most weight in any deal.
Electrification of Final Energy Demand
Electrification means using electricity, instead of burning coal, oil, gas or wood, to do everyday work like running vehicles, cooking, heating water and running factories. If that electricity comes from clean sources like solar, wind, hydro or nuclear, emissions fall sharply. Electric motors and heat pumps also waste far less energy than engines and boilers, so the total energy needed also drops.
Türkiye has made this "35 by 35" electrification goal the centrepiece of its COP31 action agenda. The EU's demand that it be "clean" electrification raises the question of whether electricity from coal and gas plants would count, which links it directly to the fossil fuel debate.
Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (TAFF): From Phase-Down to the Belém Roadmap
"Transitioning away from fossil fuels" means the world slowly moving its energy system off coal, oil and natural gas and onto clean sources. These words were first agreed by all countries at COP28 in Dubai in 2023, as part of the first Global Stocktake decision (often called the "UAE Consensus"). Burning fossil fuels is the main cause of climate change, so this was a historic step, even though it is not a hard, dated "phase-out".
Since the 2023 promise to transition away from fossil fuels, COPs have struggled to turn it into action. Türkiye's electrification push is one route towards it, but the EU's insistence on "clean" electrification shows the old dispute over coal, oil and gas is still unresolved.
- COP31: Antalya, Türkiye, November 9 to 20, 2026; high-level segment on November 11 and 12
- COP31 roles: Türkiye is host and COP Presidency; Australia is President of Negotiations (arrangement agreed at COP30, Belém)
- COP31 electrification goal: electricity's share of global final energy demand to rise from just over 20% to 35% by 2035 (voluntary)
- UNFCCC: adopted 1992 (Rio Earth Summit), in force 1994, secretariat in Bonn
- COP28 (Dubai, 2023): first COP decision to call for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems"; tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency by 2030
- The United States has left the Paris Agreement; the US and China are the two largest greenhouse gas emitters