Turkey, the host country of COP31, stated on Monday (21) that pursuing "climatically responsible artificial intelligence" will be one of the priorities during the United Nations climate summit, which will take place between November 9 and 20.
The UN conference will be held in the coastal city of Antalya, in partnership with Australia. The Turkish presidency of the event has already indicated it intends to promote initiatives to combat emissions from waste, make cities more climate-resilient, and boost the electrification of the economy.
Now, COP31 President and Turkey's Climate Minister Murat Kurum announced that the summit will also address growing concerns regarding the rise of AI and its carbon footprint.
"COP31 will rise to this moment," he said in a speech in New York, where he is attending the climate week that takes place in the city every year.
"We need to openly discuss AI's growing energy consumption, and the time has come for governments to start setting rules. We expect companies to be transparent about their energy use and to power their operations with clean energy."
The COP31 presidency also announced that it is drafting a political commitment on how AI can contribute to climate goals. Developed with a United Nations agency, a draft on this subject is expected to be presented before the summit.
As part of the so-called Action Agenda, which brings together measures focused primarily on the private sector, the commitment would be voluntary. Therefore, it would not need to go through the consensus approval process of the nearly 200 nations participating in the formal negotiations.
A second initiative is expected to introduce pilot projects to demonstrate "the responsible use of AI."
In an unusual arrangement, this year Turkey is hosting the event and drafting this parallel agenda, while Australia presides over the political negotiations.
Turkey's main proposal is a new target to raise to 35% by 2035 the share of global energy demand met by electricity. To achieve this, however, the current pace of electrification would need to more than double, according to an analysis by the International Renewable Energy Agency.
In simple terms, electrification means replacing technologies that directly burn fossil fuels — such as gas heating systems and gasoline-powered vehicles — with electric alternatives.
To tackle climate change, the additional electricity must come primarily from clean sources, such as solar and wind. Turkey's "35x35" target does not specify how this additional energy should be produced.
In the ever-arduous climate diplomacy arena, countries are divided over the path to gradually phasing out the fossil fuels that are warming the planet. No major breakthrough is expected on this contentious point in this year's negotiations, despite Brazilian efforts to promote the idea of a "roadmap" for abandoning dirty energy.
