Wars May Spur Faster Electrification

The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have prompted an increase in EV sales to avoid retail fuel inflation and gas demand destruction in favor of other power generation sources. With COP31 starting next week, some participants have signaled that faster electrification could become the focus of the event. "I would like to see a strong outcome on electrification in our presidency-led decision," this year's COP's head of negotiations, Australian climate change minister Chris Bowen, told Bloomberg.

Bowen also said he would consider COP31 a success if all participating countries made a commitment to increase the share of electricity in their final energy demand mix. Final energy is the kind that is actually used, as opposed to primary energy, which is energy in its raw form.