Bonn Climate Talks: COP31 Presidency announces “35% by 2035” electrification target

COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum has launched a new global electrification target as a flagship initiative of the COP31 Presidency’s Action Agenda, calling for a major acceleration in the shift from direct fossil fuel use to clean electricity across buildings, transport and industry.

 

This comes as part of a wider package of non-negotiated Action Agenda initiatives and targets announced by the COP31 President-Designate.

 

Speaking to delegates at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, Mr. Kurum, who is Türkiye’s Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, proposed a collective global goal to increase the share of final energy demand met by electricity from just over 20% today to 35% by 2035.

 

“By electrifying daily life, from transport to buildings and industry, we can protect families and businesses from volatile energy markets. This “35% by 2035” target will be one of the defining priorities of our COP31 Presidency. On the road to COP31 in Antalya, we will work to bring together a strong global coalition that is ready and determined to act in support of this objective,” said Murat Kurum.

 

The COP31 Presidency also committed to building a global coalition to implement actions towards achieving this target.

 

The target is based on analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and is designed to support implementation of the Paris Agreement and help keep the world on a pathway consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

 

During a presentation on the Presidency’s Action Agenda, Mr. Kurum also announced other targets, including a goal of halving the growth in global waste by 2035. This ambition is part of COP31’s thematic focus on achieving zero waste. Food waste in particular accounts for 10% of global emissions, primarily through methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.

 

The COP31 Presidency also introduced a new global target under its Resilient Cities priority, to reduce energy consumption intensity in the building sector by at least 25% by 2035. This is an important step in protecting families and businesses from rising energy costs.

 

In addition, Mr. Kurum also shared details on new initiatives and targets being developed by the Presidency. These include critical topics such as food security, circular materials in manufacturing and climate education.

 

He also shared further details on the Climate Implementation Bridge, which will support countries by improving the link between national climate, economic and development priorities, helping finance reach the ground more rapidly and with greater impact.

 

In support of the electrification target, the COP31 Presidency, in partnership with Australia, has commissioned the IEA to deliver special reports to map out pathways to achieving the “35x35” target and to analyse the benefits of halving waste growth and boosting circular waste management systems.

 

This follows the COP31 Presidency’s existing work with IRENA to identify how electrification can accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

 

“Electrification has already sparked a global surge in clean energy, driving growth and jobs. Rewiring the global economy is crucial to kick the world’s addiction to coal, oil and gas, to bring energy costs down, and to restore energy security. Now’s the time to step up the pace and scale of electrification, as the current fossil fuel cost crisis shows so painfully,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. “So too, more resilient and energy-efficient cities and cutting waste are key to tackling the climate crisis which is already hitting every economy and global supply chains, and driving up inflation. The Brazilian COP30 Presidency introduced the alignment of the Action Agenda with the first Global Stocktake outcomes, setting six thematic axes — and the incoming Turkish presidency, working with Australia, is to be commended for building on that progress.”

 

The Bonn Climate Change Conference is taking place from 8–18 June 2026 and is an annual meeting of negotiators from Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, ahead of the annual COP summit, which will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, this November.

 

Climate talks produce first draft for possible Paris Agreement

The first negotiation session of UN talks on climate closed in Geneva with an increasing focus on the need for immediate action on climate change.

The talks produced the first draft of a possible "Paris Agreement" which will be negotiated throughout the year, before being finally agreed in the French capital in December.

The final day of talks were heated over exchanges about 'carbon markets' and as hundreds of organisations from across the world warned of risks to the right to food if misguided policies on land use and climate are applied.

Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, in a briefing to the press, quoted the letter saying, "land is essential for our food and our livelihoods. It is the basis of our communities, our cultures and our spiritualities... We cannot allow policies and actions that will further threaten peoples' rights to food, to land and the commons."

Commenting on other areas of interest at the negotiations, observers like Asad Rehman, Head of International Climate, Friends of the Earth (EWNI), noted that "Geneva drew a line in the sand between those governments who are taking the warnings of climate science seriously, and are looking to protect the wellbeing of their citizens and those who seem more interested in protecting short term 'business as usual' interests”.

Those that recognize the urgency of the climate crisis, he observed, demanded concrete steps to increase action in the critical pre-2020 period through stronger targets, more finance and technology transfers and by focusing on transforming our polluting energy system.

“The outcome is still up in the air but it's clear that deeper emissions reductions in the short term will need to be part of any effective agreement in Paris," said Asad.

"Africans are increasingly worried about some of the so-called climate 'solutions' that are proposed here. Some of these failed experiments like soil carbon markets and land use in mitigation are thinly disguised code for incentives to grab up African land as we have seen happening over the last couple of years,” stated Mithika Mwenda, General Secretary of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA). “Governments must learn from the biofuels disaster and stop such proposals in their tracks." 

Africa joins mass die-in as Lima climate talks end

The final day of UN negotiations began with a mass die-in of observers from across the world to highlight the voices ignored by the outcome of the conference.

At the 2013 climate conference in Warsaw, Poland, civil society groups and others staged a massive and unprecedented “walkout” of the negotiations in protest of what they viewed as another year of failed negotiations.

As protesters left the conference halls in Poland, they chanted the phrase, “Volveremos!” which in Spanish means, “we will return.” 

After another year of still rising global warming emissions, diplomats and civil society observers returned to COP20 in Lima, Peru, with an unrelenting call for justice, but a slightly different tone.

As negotiations concluded on Friday, members of civil society performed a “die-in” with over 150 participants.

“This is hypocrisy and duplicity on the part of developed country governments,” said Fazal Issa of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) from Tanzania.

In unison, demonstrators fell to the ground outside of the plenary hall where a text to set a framework for a global climate “deal” next year in Paris was being negotiated.

“Governments of developed countries are pressuring developing countries when they do not even own up to the inadequacy of their targets and constantly refuse to include climate finance as part of binding agreements,” Issa told the crowd. “Climate finance for mitigation actions in the South is part of the obligations and fair share of the efforts of developed countries.” 

Other speakers were from the Philippines, the Dominican Republic and Peru.

Gerry Arances of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice stated that “we are already suffering massive devastation, loss of lives, and displacement of communities, with just 0.8°C of warming. Even that will mean far worse consequences for our people than what they are already experiencing.”

He added that neither sympathy nor solidarity were adequate, because “this outcome in Lima is unacceptable to the people of Asia.”

The impacts in the Philippines highlight that some losses and damages from a warmer world are already and will continue to be unavoidable.

Last year in Warsaw, a process was established so that countries most responsible for climate change could compensate those that suffer these losses.

But this year, some developed countries, like the United States and Japan, have tried to oust such a mechanism from being included in a global agreement.

Peruvian Lorena Del Carpio of Movimiento Ciudadano Frente al Cambio Climatico (Citizens Movement on Climate Change), called citizens from across the world to continue to rise into action and not be struck down.