A top Turkish official highlighted on Wednesday the country's 2035 renewable targets and energy transformation push, outlining a vision for contributing to global supply security by extending regional networks and pipelines.
Attending the "Türkiye Clean Energy Transition Investment Forum," organized by the Presidency's Investment Office with contributions from Bloomberg and Energy Shift Capital, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar presented Ankara's strategies and goals in the sector.
The forum was held in London, where Bayraktar, alongside other top officials, was this week as part of London Climate Action Week.
"In this age of uncertainty, as the energy world is rocked by global crises, we shared our country's determined journey in energy transformation and our strategic vision for the future with international investors," Bayraktar said in a post on X.
"While meeting our growing energy demand with our increasing population and rapidly developing industry, we continue to serve as the guarantor of both our country's and our region's energy supply security on the path to ensuring supply security, reducing external dependence, and achieving our 2053 net zero emissions target," he added.
A day earlier, at another event organized by Zero Waste Foundation, the minister underscored that Türkiye is focusing on three main issues as part of its clean energy transition and fight against climate change, listing them as energy supply security, energy independence, and the goal of a carbon-neutral economy by the early 2050s.
In his speech there, Bayraktar pointed out that uncertainties and conflicts experienced in the world in recent years have led to profound changes in the energy sector, and the latest crisis caused by the war in the Middle East has once again demonstrated how important energy security is.
"Energy security is one of the indispensable elements for every country. The world is moving rapidly towards electrification," he said, as he cited impacts from the recent crisis and measures that countries, including Türkiye, have taken to shield their citizens against rising prices.
"This year, one of the main topics that Türkiye brought to the table as COP31 President is electrification," he added.
Earlier this month, as part of its climate agenda ahead of the upcoming COP31 climate talks, to be held in Antalya this November, Türkiye urged countries to join a voluntary push to make electricity account for 35% of global energy demand by 2035.
Unveiling this major initiative, Ankara argued that raising the global share of energy demand met by electricity from roughly 20% to 35% by 2035 would speed up the shift from fossil fuels to renewable power.
The authorities earlier pledged to the climate talks to be result-oriented while building on common understanding, action, and consensus among countries participating.
"In the coming period, electricity consumption will continue to rise, particularly due to artificial intelligence and data centers, electric vehicles and cooling," Bayraktar further said.
He similarly underlined that while energy security risks and demand for electricity are increasing, countries must also resolutely continue the fight against climate change. He also emphasized the critical importance of collective effort in the global fight against climate change.
As part of his remarks at the forum on Wednesday, the minister evaluated Türkiye's 2035 renewable goals and the continuous need for yearly expansion in capacity of about 8 gigawatts (GW) to 9 gigawatts, or even 10 GW.
He noted that Türkiye, like this, aims to quadruple its installed capacity, as he recalled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement at the COP29 summit in Baku that Türkiye targets to increase its wind and solar energy capacity to 120 gigawatts by 2035.
"With our strategy based on electrification, we aim to increase our wind and solar installed capacity to 120 GW by 2035, and we plan to hold our first offshore wind tender this year," he also said in the post on X.
"In nuclear energy, which we see as indispensable for a carbon-neutral economy, we aim to add small modular reactors (SMRs) to our energy portfolio alongside our Akkuyu, Sinop, and Trakya projects," he added.
Bayraktar has often underscored the "necessity" of nuclear projects and complementing SMRs as part of the energy mix to achieve the carbon-free goals.
"For a more resilient and modern grid that will form the backbone of our energy transformation, we are implementing a massive $80 billion investment plan in our transmission and distribution infrastructure by 2035," he also noted on social media.
"On one hand, we are multiplying production at the Sakarya Gas Field, the center of our domestic gas, to deliver it to our households, while on the other hand, we are developing one of the world's largest rare earth element reserves in Eskişehir Beylikova," he said, referring to a major discovery in central Türkiye.
Regarding critical minerals projects, Bayraktar pointed out that there "is a significant need for critical minerals to achieve the energy transformation."
In his presentation, the minister also shared Türkiye's international natural gas and pipeline projects. He stated that they have proposed international pipeline projects to other countries in the region, such as Iraq and Qatar, and the recent energy crisis caused by the Strait of Hormuz has highlighted the importance of these projects.
Bayraktar noted that many crises have occurred worldwide even over the past six to seven years, saying: "This shows that we must prepare ourselves for potential challenges in the future. This is why Türkiye proposes more interconnected and diversified energy projects. We need more diverse energy supply and transportation systems."
He shared the example of advising Iraqi officials to extend the Iraq-Türkiye pipeline to Basra.
"We hope it is now understood that this is significant not just for Türkiye or Iraq, but also for global oil markets."
Moreover, Bayraktar added that a mega interconnection line covering Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Türkiye could also be constructed.
"I don’t want to think negatively, but new challenges and crises may arise in the coming years. We have many proposed solutions. We hope to develop these collaborations both in our region and globally," he said.
"Türkiye will continue to be the strongest key to global supply security with its massive investment potential targeting a total of $200 billion by 2035 and mega interconnection projects that transcend national borders," Bayraktar separately pledged on X.
