Critics are already calling out climate policy weaknesses underlying the upcoming COP31 annual climate summit, as a flagship initiative leaves out a clean energy commitment and the summit’s hosts continue fossil fuel development.

With the summit set to start in less than two months in Antalya, Türkiye, Euronews reports that the ‘35 x 35’ Global Electrification Pledge tabled by Türkiye leaves out language to steer new electrification to clean technologies.

The voluntary pledge aims to meet 35% of the world’s energy demand with electricity by 2035, to shift the world to a low-carbon future and offset the risk of price shocks from a volatile global oil market. But critics say the pledge has left out language explicitly requiring the use of clean technologies, rather than electricity produced with gas or coal.

“Let’s not allow electrification to become the Trojan horse of our times, used to hide new fossil fuel consumption rather than promote renewable energy,” Claire Smith, senior international campaigner for Beyond Fossil Fuels, said in a statement.

Murat Kurum, COP31 president and Türkiye’s minister of environment, urbanization and climate change, maintains that widespread electrification will “automatically” lead to reduced fossil fuel use. Climate Home News writes.

Türkiye is sharing the COP31 presidency with Australia, with the host country handling operations and logistics while Australia leads political negotiations and coordinates official texts. Recent reporting notes the two countries have complicated policies for energy development that include both clean energy and continued fossil fuel expansion.

“They’ve made progress in renewable energy, but I think their credibility—and their ability to therefore bring momentum and good outcomes to the COP—will depend on their taking further action at home,” Jennifer Morgan, a senior fellow at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and a former climate envoy for Germany, told The Age.

In April, analysis by Ember found that Türkiye was expanding its renewable energy capacity. While Ember’s 2025 report [pdf] put coal in the lead at 34% of the country’s energy mix, wind and solar reached a 23% share in 2026, while coal dropped to  21%, according to [pdf] an Ember release.

In 2025, Türkiye listed in the top 10 for renewable electricity among G20 countries and had the fourth-highest new battery-electric car sales among European countries. But the analysis concluded that Türkiye must also increase its efforts to phase out fossil fuels.

Climate Action Tracker says Türkiye is at a “crossroads on power sector transformation” but gives the country a “critically insufficient” rating for its climate policies and action. Despite accelerating electrification, Türkiye has no fossil fuel phaseout plan and continues to invest in fossil fuels, which echoes the criticism of the Global Electrification Pledge.

Australia, too, shows progress on clean energy alongside continued fossil fuel development, with an “insufficient” rating from Climate Action Tracker. The Australian government recently accelerated multiple new projects that could keep fossil fuels in its energy mix for years to come. They include the Shenandoah South Pilot Project that will draw gas from the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory, and an extension of the Saraji mine in Queensland that will supply 55 million tonnes of coal between now and 2055, reports The Guardian.

“This leaves us incredulous,” Ben McLeod, a senior adviser at the Climate Council, told the Guardian in response to the Saraji mine approval. “The prime minister said the entry fee for the [COP] forum was taking climate change seriously, but then we get this approval of 55 million tonnes of coal. It is hard to see how those two things are compatible.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also criticized for a speech he gave this week before the United Nations General Assembly, in which he urged global climate action but did not call for cutting fossil fuels, The Guardian writes.