The United Nations' annual climate summit opened Monday in Antalya, Turkey, as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran drives an energy shock that is putting electrification and fossil-fuel policy back in focus.
NPR framed a key COP31 benchmark as lifting the world's electrification rate from about 23% now to 35% by 2035. Kingsmill Bond, an analyst at energy think tank Ember, told NPR that solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles offer lower-cost responses as oil and natural gas become more expensive. Bond said those technologies can strengthen countries' economic security while lowering emissions.
Bond contrasted this shock with the 1970s energy crisis and the disruption after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, saying cleaner technologies now provide cheaper options. NPR also cited financial-services firm Lazard for the finding that large solar and wind installations have become more cost-competitive than new gas and coal power projects.
Fossil-fuel policy remains a point of contention. NPR reported that Saudi Arabia and Russia have repeatedly resisted mention of fossil fuels in final conference texts. Some governments say the U.N. process has not adequately confronted the leading driver of climate change: burning fossil fuels, NPR reported. Drafting is underway on a treaty with legal force involving at least 26 countries that met in April to discuss a transition away from oil, gas and coal. NPR said the agreement is intended to advance a fossil-fuel phase-out, and its supporters hope more countries will join at COP31.
The State Department told NPR the United States would send no official team. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he and other Democratic lawmakers intend to press for attention to fossil-fuel policy and possible carbon pricing.
COP31 follows a dispute over climate-finance agenda requests, covered in EconoTimes' earlier report on the COP31 climate-finance agenda. The World Leaders Climate Action Summit is scheduled for Nov. 11-12, and the wider conference is set to run through Nov. 20.
