A third of world’s energy needs should come from electricity by 2035, says Cop31 host

Turkish minister Murat Kurum says ‘electrifying daily life’ will be priority for this year’s UN climate summit

The world should aim to meet a third of its energy needs from electricity within a decade to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the host of the next UN climate summit has said.

While about a third of global electricity generation already comes from renewable sources, other energy-intensive sectors – chiefly transport, heating and industries – have lagged behind. Close to four-fifths of final energy still comes from fossil fuels, as a result.

Murat Kurum, Turkey’s environment minister, who will preside over the Cop31 summit this November with Australia, said electrifying all sectors of the economy would help shift the world to a low-carbon future. He called for a target of 35% of final energy demand to be met from electricity by 2035, up from about 20% today.

The Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, opening the conference with Kurum and the UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, said cutting fossil fuel dependence and investing in clean energy and electrification were solutions to both worsening climate-induced natural disasters and what he called “the worst energy crisis in our history”.

Bowen told the conference the focus on electrifying the global economy had “emerged with clarity” in early discussions.

“Whether it be electrifying industry in a great industrial powerhouse like Germany, or assisting African communities with the journey to clean cooking, or improving the energy security of Pacific nations by replacing diesel with solar energy, renewable energy is now the cheapest form of power available to us,” he said.

The technology to electrify transport and heating is already well established, in the form of electric vehicles and heat pumps, but take-up has been patchy in places. Clean technology has fallen rapidly in price, and now looks more attractive as the world endures its second fossil fuel crisis within five years as a result of the Iran war, which has raised oil prices to more than $100 a barrel .