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

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A “certain degree of pragmatism” on electrification is “probably” needed, Wopke Hoekstra told reporters 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…

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