Electrification becomes policy

Türkiye is moving electrification from an energy trend to a state policy, with Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar saying a new long-term architecture will put electricity at the center of cutting import dependence. (dailysabah.com) Bayraktar made the remarks on April 12 at a consultation meeting called “Türkiye’s Energy Vision.” He said the government is drafting a long-term plan and linked it directly to reducing the country’s exposure to imported fuels. (dailysabah.com) (enerji.gov.tr) The announcement landed alongside a new round of European Union-Türkiye climate contacts focused on carbon pricing, industrial decarbonisation and resilience. The European External Action Service said the climate dialogue resumed in Brussels on October 1, 2025, under Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra and Turkish Environment Minister Murat Kurum. (eeas.europa.eu) Electrification means shifting energy use from directly burning imported oil, gas or coal to running more of the economy on power that can be generated at home. The logic is straightforward in Türkiye, where the International Energy Agency says rising oil and gas imports have left the economy exposed to swings in fossil-fuel prices. (iea.org 1) (iea.org 2) That shift also lines up with Europe’s new carbon trade rules for imports. The European Commission says the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive phase on January 1, 2026, after a transition period that ran from October 1, 2023, through the end of 2025. (trade.ec.europa.eu) (taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu) For Turkish exporters, that matters most in carbon-heavy sectors such as steel, cement and other industrial goods sold into the European Union. The Commission says the mechanism is designed to put a carbon price on emissions embedded in imported carbon-intensive products and push cleaner production outside the bloc as well. (taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu) Türkiye is not starting from zero on electricity, but its power mix still shows the constraint Bayraktar is trying to solve. Ember said wind and solar supplied 22% of electricity generation in 2025, while coal remained the largest source at 34%, with two-thirds of that coal imported. (ember-energy.org) The country is also building market tools around the transition. Energy exchange operator EPİAŞ said in 2024 that it signed a memorandum with European Energy Exchange to develop a Turkish emissions trading system, and later announced cooperation with Verra on a carbon credit trading platform. (epias.com.tr) Bayraktar has been sketching this direction for more than a year, pairing renewables, efficiency, nuclear power, gas as a transition fuel and mining in his decarbonisation roadmap. His April 12 remarks suggest the government is now trying to tie those pieces into one long-term design built around electricity. (atlanticcouncil.org) (dailysabah.com)