World leaders — well, some of them — gathered in Turkey this week for COP31, the annual climate conference, for discussions focused on how we power our world. Specifically, conference organizers proposed that attendees join in on a goal of meeting 35% of the world’s final energy demand with electricity by 2035, up from just over 20% today.
Achieving that target demands participation from across the global economy. Everyday drivers and shippers will need to replace gasoline- and diesel-powered cars and trucks with plug-in alternatives. Manufacturers will need to swap in industrial heat pumps and electric boilers. Steel and ironmakers must embrace electric arc furnaces and other cleaner technologies.
But if the power that supplies all those electric vehicles, heat pumps, and furnaces comes from fossil fuels, will electrification still make a dent in global emissions? Yes, and there are a few reasons why.
For one, electrification is a necessary step to ditching fossil fuels. And it can take a long time to make the switch, whether it’s your home’s heating or an industrial-scale system providing steam to a factory. Getting more homes and processes electrified now means a larger portion of the world’s energy demand will be cleaned up as soon as more renewables arrive on the grid.
Electric-powered machines are also way more energy efficient than fossil-fueled options, as energy and climate policy expert Jan Rosenow has explained. A lot of energy gets wasted when you burn fossil fuels, particularly in small localized applications like a boiler that heats up a home. But you can get the same result with less fuel — and fewer carbon emissions — if you burn natural gas at a big power plant and then use that electricity to power a heat pump.
Electrification has a benefit beyond emissions, too — one that has become especially pertinent as the war in the Middle East has sent global oil and gas prices through the roof. It lets countries reduce their reliance on imported fossil fuels.
In Europe and Asia, people have responded by buying electric stoves and cars to curb their reliance on imported oil and natural gas. And the EU, learning both from the Iran war and the ongoing struggle in Ukraine, announced plans in July to ramp up electricity’s share of energy use to 46% by 2040.
Whatever comes out of this year’s COP meeting, expect these climate, efficiency, and security benefits to keep nudging countries toward ever-greater levels of electrification.
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What’s next for the permitting bill?
The Senate’s bipartisan permitting bill passed its first big test this week as legislators voted 73–25 to formally take up the proposal. The bill as written would speed up permitting timelines for transmission, clean energy, and fossil fuel projects, but it’s likely to undergo a lot of edits before it becomes law.
Monday’s vote was the Senate’s first since Election Day, when it became clear Democrats would have resounding majorities in both houses of Congress next year. Many Democratic senators voted against advancing the permitting bill, with some saying they could use their newfound power to beef up the legislation’s clean energy benefits — and address concerns that the bill is too generous to fossil fuel interests.
