COP31 Could Offer Opening For Clean Energy Transition During Global Energy Crisis

ISTANBUL, May 12  (Bernama-Anadolu) -- The COP31 climate summit, to be held this year under Türkiye’s presidency and hosting, could provide a key platform for advancing a phase-out of fossil fuels amid an ongoing energy crisis, Annika Markovic, the director of Engagement and Impact at the Stockholm Environment Institute, told Anadolu.

The 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held this year in November in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, under Türkiye’s presidency and hosting, in partnership with Australia.

According to the summit’s published agenda, negotiations scheduled for November are expected to focus on the green transition in energy and moving climate action into the implementation phase.

Markovic assessed the state of COP negotiations and the potential contribution of the Türkiye-hosted meeting to climate action in comments to Anadolu.

She said the previous climate summit, COP30, held in the Brazilian city of Belem, was disappointing for many participants. She noted that the meeting had been expected to serve as an "implementation COP," but delivered only limited progress in terms of concrete outcomes.

Markovic noted that divisions among parties at COP30 contributed to the outcome, saying that some key issues remained unresolved.

"One of the most important ones was the phasing out of fossil fuels. We couldn’t reach an agreement on this in Belem, Brazil," she said.

Markovic said the current geopolitical context was making it increasingly difficult to reach multilateral agreements, adding that the adoption of a final document at COP30 should itself be seen as an achievement.

Climate negotiations become more contentious as they move closer to the implementation phase, with decisions becoming more tangible and difficult as their impact on daily life becomes clearer for both citizens and policymakers, Markovic said.

Assessing the published agenda for COP31, she said: "I think that it’s very good that Türkiye has put the clean transition, the transition to clean energy, as one of the highest priorities for the action agenda."

Markovic said support from International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol for the COP31 process was a concrete reflection of that agenda.

She noted Birol had long been an advocate for climate mitigation and adaptation, adding that even before leading the IEA he had been responsible for the World Energy Outlook and had spent years working on pathways for addressing climate change. She said his involvement in the launch was therefore welcome.

Markovic said the world is going through an energy crisis, warning that maintaining a fossil fuel-based system is becoming increasingly costly and difficult in terms of ensuring energy security.

She stressed the importance of shifting toward clean energy, adding that such a transition should be implemented without delay and that prioritising the issue was critical.

Markovic warned that multiple ongoing crises could push climate issues further down the global agenda, saying there was currently significant pushback on climate action.

"Unfortunately, we see that there is a lot of pushback on the climate change agenda right now. So, politicians are not willing to engage. They are giving priority to the more geopolitical security questions, and this is taking away some of the interest in climate change," she said.

"I think most of us are actually realising that we need to have two thoughts in our mind at the same time. We both need to deal with the geopolitical situation and the crisis, but we also need to deal with the long term effects of climate change and they are also interlinked.

"So, you see that the energy crisis is very much based on the fact that we are still dependent on fossil fuels. So, the sooner we can transit away from the fossil fuels, the less dependent we are," she added.

Markovic said how to phase out fossil fuels is expected to be one of the most challenging issues at COP31, noting that some countries that are parties to the Paris Agreement are blocking progress on ending fossil fuels due to their economic dependence on them.

She said these countries need to be engaged in order to ensure they also see the necessity of advancing progress. Markovic said countries heavily reliant on fossil fuels should diversify their economies, noting that while this is necessary, it is difficult to achieve in practice.

Markovic said she expects COP31 to make some progress on fossil fuel phase-out, while also facing difficult decisions on climate finance and consensus-building.

"I think that we can expect some progress on fossil fuel phase-out. There will be many difficult decisions to be taken on financing and, of course, having everyone agree is going to be difficult. But I have strong faith in both Australia and Türkiye to be able to do this.

Because if we just look at the doom and gloom of the current geopolitical situation, then we can say, okay, let’s jump a year, let’s not negotiate. But I think that there is always an opportunity to make a little bit of progress, and that’s better than nothing," she said.

Markovic concluded her remarks by saying: "This time it’s going to be the energy COP, but it’s also going to continue to be the COP about implementation.

Coming to Türkiye, showcasing what we are doing in order to implement the Paris Agreement, I think that’s going to create a very good message."

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU