EU climate chief hints bloc may drop clean power push at COP31

ANTALYA, Turkey — The EU climate chief has signaled the bloc is prepared to give up on a key clean energy demand at this year’s COP conference, in a bid to get more countries on board with an electrification push.

A global agreement on accelerating electrification — by increasing electricity’s share in energy use — has been touted as a way to address both worsening climate change and soaring fuel prices resulting from the Iran war.

Countries at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya are currently debating whether they can reach a consensus on the issue in the conference’s final decision. The Turkish-Australian hosts have also urged countries to sign a voluntary pledge to boost electrification.

The EU began the conference wanting any electrification agreement to refer explicitly to “clean” power, generated from renewables or nuclear, a position enshrined in the negotiating mandate agreed by its 27 member governments last month.

But Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who will co-lead negotiations for the EU from Monday, suggested in an interview that the bloc could drop that condition.

“The world needs much more radical, much faster electrification. Ideally, that comes for the overwhelming part from solar, from wind, and from nuclear sources,” he told POLITICO and other media outlets Friday.

“But at the same time, let’s also acknowledge that a certain degree of pragmatism is probably warranted and needed, to also make sure that the group of countries signing up is as large as possible.”

He added that even electrification using polluting sources — known as gray electricity — was better than burning fossil fuels straight up, as the switch from combustion to more efficient power by itself reduces energy demand and thus emissions.

“Of course we need to have a high degree of solar, wind and nuclear — and at the same time, if we embark on more electrification and part of that is gray, it is still much better to have someone charging their car with gray electricity than to continue to drive on fossil fuels, right?” said Hoekstra. “It would be a tactical mistake to seek absolutes in this.”

He nevertheless hoped electrification would act as a “unifier” in the talks that could help deliver on a previous, more contentious agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. Even China held a similar view to the EU on electrification, he said.

“The good thing about electrification is that there is a certain degree of ambiguity to it, which will probably make it easier to unite a larger group behind that thing,” he said.

Hoekstra also admitted he had “low expectations” for the Antalya summit.

“The geopolitics of the moment are extremely difficult. … Secondly, the whole pushback on climate action from various corners of the globe, the fact that the Americans have completely checked out of this, if you add all of that up … that combination shapes expectations,” he said.

Still, he insisted: “I do think we have a chance of success in the domain of electrification.”