Coal Giants Take the Wheel as COP31 Opens in Turkey With 35% Clean Power Target
Australia and Turkey, two coal-heavy economies, will jointly lead the COP31 climate summit in Antalya next week, aiming to meet 35% of final energy demand from electricity by 2035.
The COP31 United Nations climate summit opens next week in Antalya, Turkey, with an unusual leadership arrangement: Australia, a major coal exporter, and Turkey, a major coal consumer, will jointly run the talks [281516]. Both countries say they want to move the world away from dirty fossil fuels and toward clean electricity, with a headline target of meeting 35% of final energy demand from electricity by 2035 [281516].
The summit's geopolitical backdrop is poor, worse than for almost any recent UN climate summit. Wars in Ukraine, Iran and Gaza are destabilising global alliances, an unpredictable White House is sowing economic uncertainty, and artificial intelligence threatens to unleash digitised chaos [281516]. Delegates will focus on funding for developing countries and accelerating the shift to renewable energy [282355].
Holding a climate conference under the presidency of one coal-obsessed country might be seen as bad luck for the planet, and sharing the role between two looks provocative [281516]. The summit's central test will be whether clean electricity can take centre stage, or whether the contradictions of the world's fossil fuel reliance steal the show [281516].