COP31 arrives in Antalya with electrification as its goal

Seven days before the opening, Antalya is putting the final touches to a one-million-square-metre site built for the 2016 Expo and still dominated by a 100-metre tower. COP31 will be the first climate summit led by two countries, Türkiye and Australia, and it arrives with a less grand slogan than previous editions: moving from promises to delivery. No major announcement is expected, only the task of implementing what has already been agreed.

What has happened

The summit runs from 9 to 20 November at the Antalya fairground, divided into a blue zone for official delegates and a green zone open to the public. The site is linked to the city centre by tram, a journey of about 40 minutes, and the same line passes close to the airport, so delegations can reach the venue without crossing the city. Preparatory works continued through October, as EFE reported from the ground.

Türkiye's environment and urbanisation minister and COP31 president, Murat Kurum, expects the province to receive 1.5 million visitors during the summit, triple the usual November figure. Organisers have confirmed the participation of 85 heads of state or government and around 3,000 journalists, and have received applications from 45,000 volunteers. Antalya, the country's main tourism power, welcomed 14 million visitors in 2025 — 13 million of them foreign — and in the first ten months of 2026 it has already passed 15 million.

The political content is more sober. The Turkish presidency wants to raise the share of electricity in global final energy consumption from just over 20% today to 35% by 2035, an initiative branded “35 by 35”. Spain arrives in Antalya with renewables as its “flag and identity signals”, according to sources at the Ministry for the Ecological Transition cited by EFE Verde. The Spanish delegation will also defend science, multilateralism, a just transition and adaptation, and argues that electrification only has climate value if it is based on renewables and helps phase out fossil fuels.

The context does not invite optimism. Global emissions barely changed in 2025 from 2024 and, on the current trend, the planet is heading for warming of up to 2.8°C by the end of the century. National pledges would cut emissions by only 11% to 15% between 2025 and 2035, far short of the 45% UNEP considers necessary to return to 1.5°C. The United States will be absent from the summit and a less ambitious European Union, while China remains the decisive actor because of its capacity to manufacture and export clean technology.

The map: how much electricity is already renewable

The map colours 205 countries by the share of their electricity that comes from renewable sources — hydro, solar, wind, biomass and geothermal — using World Bank data for 2021, the last complete year available for almost every country. The scale runs from light to dark: the greener the country, the higher the share of renewable electricity.

Among the countries cited in this article, Brazil leads the comparison at 77.4%, driven by hydropower. Spain records 47.0%, ahead of Germany (39.8%) and Türkiye (35.4%), the host country. China, the world's largest electricity producer, sits at 28.4%; Australia, co-president of the summit, at 26.7%. France records 22.8%, consistent with the weight of nuclear in its power system, a low-carbon but non-renewable source. The United States reaches 20.3%; India, 19.1%.

Two things should not be confused. The “35 by 35” goal measures what share of final energy consumption — transport, industry, heating — will be electricity. The map measures something else: what share of the electricity already generated is renewable. They are different indicators, and the map cannot tell whether a country will meet the electrification target. What it does show is the starting point of the power system: electrifying more of the economy only cuts emissions if the additional electricity is clean. At 47.0% in 2021, Spain starts ahead of Germany and France on the map, but still has room to change the make-up of the remaining 53%.

What comes next

The summit opens on Monday 9 November. The Leaders' Summit is scheduled for 11 and 12 November, with heads of state and government expected, and on 12 November the Intergovernmental Council on Buildings and Climate will meet, where countries can endorse the Antalya Pact to cut the operational energy intensity of homes by 25% compared with 2020. Organisers have not ruled out extending sessions by two days beyond 20 November.

In the negotiations, the key questions will be how the electrification goal is defined, whether countries submit more ambitious climate plans and how finance is mobilised for the states that have contributed least to the problem. The presidency itself describes the meeting as an implementation COP: fewer announcements, more mechanisms. For Spain, the test will be whether its weight in renewables translates into influence over the final text.

The map accompanying this article will be updated when the World Bank publishes data for years after 2021; until then, it serves to frame the debate, not to certify the present state of each power system. The summit will last two weeks. The transition it discusses will take decades.