The global energy crisis has underscored the need for the world economy to transform and "accelerate the transition to clean energy," Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister and COP31 President-designate Murat Kurum said Thursday.
Oil prices have soared since the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February and Tehran subsequently closed the Strait of Hormuz, fuelling calls for the world to ditch its reliance on fossil fuels.
"The world is facing the biggest energy crisis in its history today," Kurum told a meeting on the energy transition at the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris.
"We now know clearly that the global economy must transform its energy paradigm," said Kurum.
"And the most critical step is to accelerate the transition to clean energy," he added.
His view was also echoed by the U.N.'s climate chief, Simon Stiell, who was among the attendees at the conference on energy transition.
"The fossil fuel cost crisis now has its foot on the throat of the global economy," Stiell said at a meeting hosted by the IEA.
"From this tragedy, an immense irony is unfolding. Those who've fought to keep the world hooked on fossil fuels are inadvertently supercharging the global renewables boom," he said, without naming countries or companies.
The Paris meeting was being held in the lead-up to the U.N.'s COP31 climate summit to be held in Türkiye's southern city of Antalya this November.
Diplomats and representatives from banks, oil firms and renewable energy companies attended the talks.
IEA chief Fatih Birol said oil prices, which topped $126 per barrel on Thursday, were "putting a lot of pressure on many countries."
"Our world is facing a major energy and economic challenge," said Birol, adding that his agency, which advises its member countries on energy policy, was monitoring the situation.
The talks in Paris came as nearly 60 nations hailed progress at the end of a conference in Colombia aimed at speeding the shift away from planet-heating fossil fuels and breaking a stalemate on the issue at U.N. climate talks.
The Santa Marta conference was announced last year after nations failed to include an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final deal reached at the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
"Coalitions of the willing are already forging ahead," Stiell said, pointing to the gathering in Colombia.
"In key sectors right across the action agenda, COP31 in Türkiye will provide a global stage to pick up the pace," he said. "We must seize this moment. We have no time to lose."
Stiell said that countries rich in renewables, such as Spain and Pakistan, had been shielded from the worst impacts of the fossil fuel cost crisis.
"Renewables offer safer, cheaper, cleaner energy that can't be held captive by narrow shipping straits or global conflicts," Stiell said.
"That's why so many governments are pushing renewables plans into overdrive: to restore national security, economic stability, competitiveness, policy autonomy and basic sovereignty," he added.
China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Germany, the U.K. and others have been "clear that pushing forward with the renewables transition is a cornerstone of energy security," he added.
"This is real momentum," Stiell said. "We must harness it to accelerate a truly global shift."
Kurum, for his part, also reiterated Türkiye's goal of accelerating transition, while also highlighting that the country has tripled its renewable energy production in the past decade, while investing more than $10 billion in energy efficiency.
Among his remarks, he mentioned the importance of clean cooking, reminding that more than 2.3 billion people in the world use traditional stoves that run on solid fuels.
He also announced the formation of a "strategic partnership" with IEA and conveyed the aim of COP31 to be results-oriented.
