Push for clean energy and electrification a key focus at COP31 in Turkey

SINGAPORE – Getting countries to accelerate their transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energy options will be a key focus at the upcoming UN climate conference COP31 held in Turkey in November.

This round of the annual summit, hosted by Turkey with Australia leading the negotiations, will have a “strong focus” on electrification and clean energy investment, said Emily Follett, deputy high commissioner at the Australian High Commission in Singapore.

She was speaking on Sept 3 during a panel at the Sustainability Dialogue 2026 organised by the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore.

One of the main targets Turkey is proposing is to increase the share of electricity in global energy demand from 20 per cent currently to 35 per cent by 2035 through electrification.

Electrification helps to reduce carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuels with electricity power from low-carbon sources – such as the switch from cars with internal combustion engines to electric cars. This replaces fossil fuel combustion in a car with a battery that can be charged up with green sources.

Follett said that energy security vulnerabilities, as highlighted by the recent global energy shocks, could help to fuel interest in more financing for renewable energy.

“More clean energy and greater electrification can, of course, reduce exposure to volatile fuel markets… they strengthen energy security, and they reduce emissions at the same time, so it really is a win-win,” she said.

The other panellists were Sadik Arslan, Turkey’s ambassador in Singapore, and Joseph Teo, Singapore’s chief negotiator for climate change.

Arslan said Turkey has been investing in renewable energy. More than 50 per cent of the country’s electricity is generated by renewables, mainly from hydroelectric, solar and wind power, he added.

On how the success of the climate summit should be measured, he said that negotiations should deliver balanced progress on mitigation, adaptation and means of implementation. Tangible action should also be visible beyond the negotiating rooms, in energy systems, among others. “For Turkey, an implementation of COP means linking multilateral consensus to practical delivery,” he said.

Teo said the target to raise electricity’s share of global energy demand to 35 per cent by 2035 is one that Singapore is keen about.

“We really need to talk about practical ways of getting countries to retire coal early and then to phase in renewable energy,” he said.

Investment in energy grids is also an issue that interests the Republic.

Singapore can play the role of a connector, Teo said, such as by rallying public-private partnerships.

An example is Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P). This climate financing initiative makes use of blended finance – which involves a mix of public, private and philanthropic money – to fund projects such as those pushing for cleaner sources of electricity to replace coal.

The blended finance approach uses public or philanthropic capital to attract risk-averse private capital, which holds most of the world’s wealth, to kick-start investment in sustainable projects.

“Singapore came in putting in some first-loss instrument and then trying to structure innovatively how to get in place the pieces, the secret, sweet sauce that can then crowd in private sector,” said Teo. First-loss guarantees refer to a financial mechanism where a public or philanthropic investor agrees to absorb the initial losses in a portfolio of investments, protecting commercial lenders and institutional investors.

Besides investing in clean energy, more investment is also needed in helping countries adapt to the intensifying impacts of climate change, Follett said.

Adaptation measures include making a place more flood-proof, strengthening food security, and making infrastructure more climate-resilient.

Other priorities Australia has at COP31 are mobilising finance and investment, growing green industries, and elevating the needs and priorities of the Pacific nations, which are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, said Follett.

Teo said Singapore hopes the upcoming summit will build on the outcomes achieved at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, and give “very strong” support for multilateralism to engineer the actions needed in a geopolitically fraught time.

The summit should not be dismissed as a “talk shop”, he added.

Each COP sends signals of a government’s intentions to reach a certain target, through instruments like nationally determined contributions – or national climate targets – and national adaptation plans.

“Those signals are important for the private sector, and those in the private sector should use those signals to know where they should be putting their money,” he said.