As the climate summit to be held in November 2026 draws closer, Türkiye has emerged as the leading European country in championing energy storage—a key technology for ensuring energy security and accelerating the integration of renewable energy sources. Its firm commitment to battery systems and to modernizing electricity grids has afforded the country a strategic role within the wider energy transition taking place across Europe.
Türkiye, which will host the COP31 Climate Summit, has embraced a strong commitment in recent years to buffer its energy security by promoting battery-based electricity storage for renewable energy. This is highlighted in a recent analysis conducted by EMBER, an energy-focused think tank, on the country.
According to EMBER’s findings, Türkiye currently surpasses all other EU countries combined in terms of the volume of battery storage projects under development. Since 2022, the country has promoted a regulatory framework linking the installation of new renewable capacity—mainly wind and solar—to associated storage systems. More precisely, new projects must include battery capacity equivalent to the installed generation capacity.
As a result, Türkiye’s total assigned storage pipeline already stands at 33 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to the entire electricity consumption of a country such as Spain, according to data from Red Eléctrica de España. By comparison, the European Union countries with the highest battery capacity remain below half of Türkiye’s level, at between 12 and 13 GW. Furthermore, Türkiye’s battery projects under development account for 83% of its current wind and solar capacity (40 GW).
Energy storage and the energy trilemma
Türkiye’s push for electricity storage also responds to a strategic objective: strengthening the so-called energy trilemma, a concept that seeks to balance three major energy policy challenges: ensuring reliable supply, keeping prices affordable, and cutting polluting emissions.
In this context, storage technologies are gaining prominence because they help channel more renewable energy into electricity grids and make the system more flexible during periods of high demand or lower solar and wind generation. This makes it possible to move toward more resilient energy systems that are less dependent on fossil fuels.
COP31: organizational aspects and key discussion points
Against this backdrop, Türkiye’s notable progress toward energy storage also strengthens its role ahead of COP31, which will take place in the Turkish city of Antalya from November 9 to 20, 2026. The deployment of batteries has become a strategic tool for forging ahead with the integration of renewable energy, fortifying grid stability, and advancing toward safer and more decarbonized energy systems—one of the major challenges expected to shape the next climate summit.
Although there is not yet a finalized agenda outlining what participating countries will discuss, preliminary meetings are already underway to align positions.
For the first time since the summit began, negotiations will be guided by two countries: Türkiye and Australia, which will mean carving up responsibilities:
- Türkiye will hold the presidency, meaning it will host the summit and also lead the Action Agenda. The Action Agenda is a central pillar of the Climate Convention because it mobilizes voluntary climate action by civil society, businesses, investors, cities, states, and countries to step up emissions reductions and climate adaptation, and make the transition toward more sustainable economies.
- Australia will have sole authority to lead the negotiations. The country will do so through its Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, who has been appointed President of COP31 Negotiations.
Because of this new model for organizing the summit, the staging of COP31 will seek to connect the Mediterranean and Pacific regions. The aim is to secure a commitment supporting the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, two mainstays of international climate action.
COP30 conclusions as the starting point for the COP31 roadmap
Following last year’s COP30 in Brazil, the participating countries reached a series of final agreements that were somewhat less ambitious than hoped. However, progress was made in climate mitigation and adaptation financing, as well as in ensuring a just transition. The main conclusions were as follows:
- Large-scale financing: countries will continue to champion measures aimed at delivering $1.3 trillion annually to developing countries starting in 2035 to finance global climate action.
- More funding for adaptation: countries signing the Belém package also pledged to double their financing for climate adaptation that same year and triple it by 2035.
- Further efforts to move away from oil: while the commitment to phase out fossil fuels was not included in the final COP30 declaration, progress was still made along these lines. More than 80 countries supported Brazil’s initiative to develop a roadmap for a fair, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. Last April saw the Santa Marta Summit, the first conference on the transition away from fossil fuels promoted by Colombia and the Netherlands.
- Regulatory advances: the Principles for Taxonomy Interoperability (also known as the “super taxonomy”) were introduced, as a regulatory effort to create a ‘common language’ among sustainable finance taxonomies worldwide, thus helping to reduce market fragmentation.
- Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF): designed to provide stable, long-term protection for tropical rainforests.
- Creation of the Just Transition Mechanism: intended to coordinate policies, technical assistance, and international cooperation to ensure that the decarbonization process is “fair and inclusive,” albeit without a dedicated funding mechanism attached.
COP30 went to show that the energy transition cannot be defined solely through climate objectives. This is due to ongoing geopolitical tensions—for example, the United States did not participate in that edition and armed conflicts continue to exist—as well as economic pressures and the physical impacts of climate change.
By contrast, hopes are high ahead of COP31, because the commitments made at the previous summit will need to be reviewed. This will be done with two objectives in mind: updating them and also raising the bar under the premise of gradually reducing fossil fuel use. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy-related emissions totaled 38.4 billion tons in 2025, representing a 5% increase compared with 2019.