Climateupdated 18m ago2 min read
Ana Toni Launches Roadmap for Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuels Ahead of COP31
“Outdated power grids are a major hurdle in the transition to renewable energy, since older systems often can't absorb all the electricity from new, cleaner sources.”
“Yet this clean energy upswing is a long way from compensating for the country's overreliance on fossil fuels.”
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Ana Toni unveiled a fossil-fuel transition roadmap ahead of COP31. Roadmap lacks UN mandate and an international body to maintain it, per Dialogue Earth.
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Santa Marta to COP31
Stientje van Veldhoven said the Netherlands helped co-host the first-ever conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels (TAFF) this April and described the Santa Marta gathering as a forum where nearly 60 nations met with 2,600-plus participants to discuss concrete solutions for shifting away from fossil fuels. Van Veldhoven said the Santa Marta process will see expert groups and committed countries develop national roadmaps, chart pathways to overcome financial constraints, and drive economic transformation.
Dialogue Earth said Ana Toni launched the Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Brasília on 3 November, six days before COP31 opened, and the roadmap asks each country to “diagnose” how dependent it is on fossil fuels and its “readiness” to move away. Ana Toni told Dialogue Earth that the roadmap is “aligned with the 1.5C objective” and that it is “not a one-size-fits-all prescription,” while she said the roadmap runs in three phases to 2033.
Roadmaps, mandates, and indices
Dialogue Earth said Ana Toni argued the roadmap lacks a UN mandate and an international body to maintain it, and it said the presidency hopes the advice will prompt countries to draw up their own national roadmaps. Ana Toni told Dialogue Earth that the first step is to understand how dependent we are on fossil fuels, and she said, “Without that understanding, we cannot identify the right policies and levers to move forward.”
Van Veldhoven said workstreams were launched in early August and that each workstream has an assigned lead organisation, or madrina, with Workstream 1 focusing on supporting countries in developing and implementing flexible, country-owned national roadmaps. Van Veldhoven said the consortium for Workstream 1 currently consists of the NDC Partnership, the Powering Past Coal Alliance, the World Resources Institute and the newly established Science Panel on the Global Energy Transition.
COP31 electrification push
COP31 host Turkey set a target that 35% of energy demand be met by electricity by 2035, and COP31 President Murat Kurum described the commitment “35 for 2035” as “one of the defining features” of the Turkish presidency. El Obrero said electrification is one of COP31’s main objectives to replace gasoline and diesel vehicles, gas boilers, and some industrial processes that burn fossil fuels with electric alternatives, but it warned that electrification alone will not deliver a clean energy transition.
DW said Turkey’s coal-fired electricity generation increased by roughly one-third in the last decade, and it quoted Efe Baysal saying, “coal's position in the electricity market in Turkey is increasingly precarious.” DW said Turkey currently imports 95% of its natural gas, 83% of crude oil and 60% of its coal, and it quoted Baysal saying the imports make up a “lion's share” of Turkey's energy capacity.