Energy Security and Affordability Arguments Mean the “Electrify Now” Moment is Here

The Global Energy Transition and Electrification Summit, took place on Tuesday afternoon as part of London Climate Action Week, will see the official launch of Electrify Now – an initiative aiming to accelerate global electrification and the transition toward a renewables-led energy system. The movement unites business groups, think tanks and civil society organisations, such as the Global Renewable Alliance, E3G, and the We Mean Business Coalition, and is backed by the EU, the UK, Australia, Turkey, and Ethiopia. 

The Electrify Now campaign, signed by 100+ companies, with a combined annual revenue of over USD 1.5 trillion, calls on governments to prioritise electrification as a central pillar of their energy policies and aims to stimulate public and private stakeholders to work together to achieve the global target of 35% electrification by 2035. The target, introduced by the COP31 Presidency during the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, is backed by the best available analysis from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and aims to accelerate the transition toward more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy systems.

The Global Momentum Behind Electrification Is Gathering Pace

“The case for shifting our economies and energy systems is clearer than ever, with climate impacts intensifying and fossil fuel volatility driving economic instability and higher costs for households and businesses alike,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, during the Summit.

With geopolitical tensions again exposing the economic and security risks of fossil fuel dependence, governments and businesses worldwide are accelerating efforts to scale up renewable energy and storage. According to Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition, there is a growing alignment that electrification can strengthen energy security, competitiveness and resilience worldwide. 

Powering Up, a global survey tracking the business perspective on electrification across 18 countries, reveals that over 90% of business leaders view it as key to strengthening energy security and resilience, and 82% want their countries to be powered mainly by renewable electricity.

According to Stefan Hall, Acting Director General of Consumers International, another argument for accelerated electrification is that consumers want an energy system they can trust. “Fossil fuel-dominated systems have locked consumers into volatile prices and left them with limited real agency in energy markets.”

Another argument in favour of accelerating electrification is that renewable energy systems, electric vehicles (EVs), and battery storage are becoming cheaper. Due to the so-called “learning curve,” in which the costs of manufactured equipment fall with each cumulative doubling of units produced, solar photovoltaic costs have fallen by 90% over the last decade, onshore wind by 70%, and batteries by more than 90%. As a result, these technologies offer progressively lower operating and lifetime costs for consumers and businesses. 

Asia Leads the Global Electrification Transition

According to Ember, a global energy think tank, Asia manufactures over 95% of solar panels, 85% of batteries and 75% of wind turbines. In March 2026 alone, China exported a record 68 GW of solar technology, equivalent to Spain’s entire solar capacity, surpassing the previous record from August 2025 by 50%. Fifty countries set records for Chinese solar imports, with the biggest growth seen in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. However, even without China, the rest of Asia still outbuilds the world in solar modules and battery components, Ember finds.

Today, Asia generates over half the world’s electricity, accounting for three-quarters of global electricity demand growth since 2000. The region overtook the West in electrification in 2016, and the gap continues to widen, with Asia electrifying five times faster. Southeast Asia overtook the US in electrification in 2023 and in EV sales share in 2024, while South Asia surpassed it in solar share in 2022.

Even historical fossil fuel strongholds, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, have recently accelerated their solar adoption and introduced ambitious electrification policies in response to the recent energy crises, that are shrinking their foreign exchange reserves, causing major blackouts that disrupt business operations across vital sectors, and increasing power costs for end users.

Achieving the 35 by 2035 Target Possible With Proper Policy Support and Collaborative Action, Experts Note

According to IRENA, to achieve the 35% target by 2035, the world needs to increase installed renewable energy capacity from 5,149 GW in 2025 to 18.4 TW by 2035, while storage capacity should jump from 416 GW in 2025 to 2,530 GW by 2035. The current level of investment in transmission, at USD 500 billion per year, would need to increase to USD 1.2 trillion per annum and remain at that level over the 2026 – 2035 period.

Various countries have already achieved a 35% electrification rate, including Iceland (51%), Norway (47%), Bahrain (41%), Malta (40%) and Tajikistan (39%). However, the global energy system’s electrification today is 21%, and achieving the 35% target by 2035 would require moving four times faster. 

While the magnitude of the challenge calls for collective and urgent efforts, different countries start from different baselines. As a result, rather than pursuing a 35% unified electrification rate, it is more important for countries to follow individually tailored transition pathways aligned with the global ambition.

Importantly, Ember estimates that over 70% of the energy system can already be electrified using commercially available technologies, which wasn’t possible five years ago. 

To accelerate electrification rates, the organisations behind the Electrify Now initiative urge governments to align their national efforts with global ambition and translate it into action through national and sub-national action plans and policies, including sectoral deployment plans and efficiency standards for EVs, heat pumps, and industrial applications.

Among the proposed steps are continuous investment in the deployment of renewables and battery storage systems, as well as grid expansion, modernisation, and integrated planning to improve energy delivery and system reliability. 

According to the campaigners, public and private-sector stakeholders should also focus on advancing international cooperation by exchanging experience through bilateral and multilateral meetings and deploying technical assistance to support capacity in electrification planning. 

The organisations behind the Electrify Now campaign also see the need to ensure that international finance institutions systematically integrate electrification into energy, climate, crisis response, and capacity-building support, and to mobilise investments at scale through public and private channels, as necessary to achieve the 2035 electrification target.

Grids as the Foundations For Successful Electrification 

The Summit also saw the launch of the Green Grids Initiative’s 10-point plan to optimise electricity grids to use more domestic renewable energy, as a strategy to protect consumers from price shocks and strengthen energy security.

“Without modern, resilient and interconnected grids, clean electricity cannot reach homes, businesses and industries,” said Francesco La Camera, Director-General of the IRENA.

Building them represented one of the greatest infrastructure transformations in modern history, requiring a fundamental shift in investment priorities, the expert noted. In total, IRENA estimates a need to invest USD 5.5 trillion in grids and flexibility between now and 2030.

According to Glenn Barber, Director of Corporate Affairs at SSE, a British multinational energy company, and a Co-Chair of the Utilities for Net Zero Alliance, while building out global grid capacity will be a key enabler of the transition to a cleaner and more secure energy system that is less exposed to price shocks, it is also vital to get the most from the grids already in operation. 

Accelerating Electrification Promises to Unlock Economic, Energy Security, and Climate Gains

According to IRENA, electrification must account for 35% of global total final electricity consumption by 2035 for the world to remain on a 1.5°C-compatible pathway. As per IEA’s Net Zero Pathway, global CO₂ emissions from energy fall by 64% between 2022 and 2035, mainly due to accelerated electrification, improved energy efficiency, and the scaling up of renewable deployment.  

Furthermore, accelerating electrification across transport, buildings, and industry is among the most effective ways to reduce exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets. Importantly, it would improve energy access, enhance competitiveness, and reduce costs for businesses and end users, since electric technologies are about three times more energy-efficient than fossil-fuel-based alternatives. As a result, households, businesses, and economies would need less energy to deliver the same services.

Experts note that while some electric technologies still have higher upfront costs, the economics align with the transition toward electrification. Over 90% of new renewables worldwide, including solar and wind, now produce electricity at lower cost than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternative. As manufacturing scales and technology costs continue to fall, they would become even more affordable, which is critical for many developing countries which need significantly more energy to support economic growth, industrialisation, cooling, mobility and improved living standards. 

Importantly, accelerating electrification would enable many governments to save on fossil fuel subsidies, which total trillions of dollars annually and will account for around 7% of global GDP through 2035, according to the IMF. The savings can be redirected towards electric technologies and concessional finance to help overcome upfront cost barriers.

While the transition to electrification won’t happen overnight, the economic, climate, and energy security arguments in its favour are compelling enough to motivate governments, businesses, and households to prioritise low-cost electric technologies over fossil-fuel alternatives when making investment decisions.

“When fossil fuel prices spike, consumers and economies suffer. When renewables and electrification accelerate, countries become more resilient,” said Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance, one of the organisations behind the Electrify Now initiative. “As the latest geopolitical tensions once again expose the risks of fossil fuel dependence, governments and businesses are sending a clear signal: the future of secure, low-cost energy is renewable electrification.”