Can an electricity pledge cut emissions if the power still comes from coal?

Turkey and Australia want countries to pledge that electricity rises from 23% of global energy use today to 35% by 2035. The pledge does not require that the extra power be clean.

Alexis Normand of Greenly puts it bluntly: If the grid is not clean, electrification does not remove emissions: it moves them from the exhaust pipe to the power plant smokestack.

The co-hosts still lean on coal. Australia's electricity was over 40% coal last year, and about a third of Turkey's came from it. Many countries, including EU members, have not agreed to the pledge, and negotiators are split over whether it belongs in the binding agreement.