Can a Sweltering Summer Create an Autumn of Opportunity for the Transition? — SkimNews
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- Europe installed 8.8GW of wind capacity in H1 2026, a 30% increase on H1 2025, while renewables supplied 53.1% of UK Major Power Producers' electricity between March and May.
- Electric car sales in Europe grew roughly 35-40% in H1 2026 versus the same period in 2025, with UK sales up about 25% over the same window — a jump the piece attributes partly to the Iran war's disruption of fossil fuel markets.
- Global benchmark costs for four-hour battery storage projects fell 27% year-on-year in 2025, removing a key economic barrier to scaling renewables.
- COP31 will convene in Antalya, Turkey, from 9-20 November under an unusual Turkey-Australia co-hosting arrangement, with a pre-COP meeting hosted by Fiji and Tuvalu from 5-8 October.
- A "35 by 35" global electrification target — raising electricity's share of global final energy demand to 35% by 2035, up from 20% — is emerging as a central COP31 theme alongside ecosystem resilience.
- The TAFF coalition of nearly 60 countries, born at COP30 in Belém, faces its first real test in Antalya twelve months later, with Ireland and Tuvalu hosting a "Santa Marta 2.0" next July.
- UK Prime Minister told UNGA that "the climate crisis is now a national security threat," reflecting a narrative shift the article argues could unlock action in a geopolitically fractured moment — delegates will be gathering just after the 3 November US mid-terms.
Why it matters: Policymakers arriving at COP31 face a stark split-screen: the technological and economic case for the transition is at its strongest on record (8.8GW of European wind in H1, a 27% drop in battery storage costs, 35-40% EV sales growth), while multilateral appetite is at its weakest, with Antonio Guterres warning it may be the last generation that "can avert climate catastrophe" and a US mid-term landing days before delegates convene.
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