<\/p>\n
Energy and Transport Day dominated the second day of COP31 in Antalya, T\u00fcrkiye, where countries examined plans to move away from coal, oil and gas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brazil presented a voluntary roadmap intended to translate the global commitment reached at COP28 into national transition plans.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s long past time to stop treating the transition away from fossil fuels as taboo or intractable,\u201d UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Guterres warned that the Middle East conflict had forced the European Union to spend more than approximately $112 billion in additional fossil-fuel import costs, while petrol and diesel prices had increased across 130 countries. \u201cChanging suppliers will not eliminate this exposure. Disruption anywhere drives up prices everywhere,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The roadmap calls on countries to assess fossil-fuel demand, production, supply and the economic consequences of transitioning to cleaner energy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Guterres urged governments to produce national plans containing clear timelines and financing requirements and demonstrate measurable progress by 2028.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye also launched the 35-by-35 Global Electrification Pledge, which aims to increase electricity\u2019s share of global energy consumption from slightly more than 20% to 35% by 2035.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, inadequate electricity networks are preventing renewable-energy projects from supplying consumers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
About 2 500GW of proposed power-generation and energy projects are awaiting grid connections worldwide, according to the UN Economic Commission for Europe.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Commission said countries needed millions of kilometres of additional transmission lines and upgrades to existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
High financing costs pose another obstacle, particularly for developing economies where renewable-energy projects can cost considerably more to finance than identical developments in wealthier countries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
UN University Researcher Olli-Pekka Kuusela said access to affordable capital was critical because solar and wind projects required significant initial investment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Development banks could provide lower-interest financing to accelerate deployment, Kuusela said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa remain without electricity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kuusela said expanded renewable generation, stronger regional interconnections and climate-resilient grids could support manufacturing, public transport and essential services while reducing dependence on imported fuels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s Global Grids Accelerator seeks to mobilise investment for electricity-network expansion and modernisation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50663,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-50662","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Continued dependence on fossil fuels is exposing countries to rising costs and energy insecurity as outdated power grids and expensive financing slow the clean-energy transition, the United Nations (UN) says.","published_date":"","news_description":"Continued dependence on fossil fuels is exposing countries to rising costs and energy insecurity as outdated power grids and expensive financing slow the clean-energy transition, the United Nations (UN) says.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50665,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50662\/revisions\/50665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=50662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}