Key facts
- Hoekstra said electrification using polluting sources was still better than burning fossil fuels directly.
- The EU's negotiating mandate, agreed by its 27 member governments last month, required any electrification deal to cite clean power.
- Hoekstra said China held a view similar to the EU's on electrification.
- Hoekstra said he had low expectations for the Antalya summit, citing geopolitics and pushback on climate action.
- Turkish and Australian hosts urged countries to sign a voluntary pledge to boost electrification.
European Commissioner for Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra said on November 13, 2026 that the EU is prepared to give up a key clean energy demand at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, to widen the group of countries backing an electrification push.
The EU began the conference wanting any electrification agreement to refer explicitly to clean power, generated from renewables or nuclear, a position set out in the negotiating mandate agreed by its 27 member governments last month. Hoekstra, who will co-lead negotiations for the EU from Monday, told POLITICO and other media outlets that a certain degree of pragmatism is probably warranted.
"The world needs much more radical, much faster electrification. Ideally, that comes for the overwhelming part from solar, from wind, and from nuclear sources," Hoekstra said. He added that electrification using polluting sources, known as gray electricity, was still better than burning fossil fuels directly, because switching from combustion to more efficient power reduces energy demand and emissions.
"It would be a tactical mistake to seek absolutes in this," he said. Hoekstra said he hoped electrification would act as a unifier in the talks and said China held a similar view to the EU on the issue.
He also said he had low expectations for the Antalya summit, citing difficult geopolitics, pushback on climate action from various corners of the globe and the United States having checked out of the process. He said he still saw a chance of success on electrification. Countries at the summit are debating whether they can reach consensus on the issue in the conference's final decision, and the Turkish-Australian hosts have urged countries to sign a voluntary pledge to boost electrification.