Türkiye will need to invest at least $80 billion in electricity infrastructure through 2035, said its Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, calling for greater access to affordable, long-term climate finance for emerging economies.

Speaking at the Istanbul Climate Finance Summit, Bayraktar said public funding alone would not be enough to meet the investment needs associated with the energy transition.

“We need to mobilise private capital, international financial institutions, development banks and long-term institutional investors,” Bayraktar said, according to Anadolu Agency.

He said financing mechanisms should help reduce investment risks and the cost of capital, making clean energy and climate-resilient infrastructure more commercially viable.

“For emerging economies like Türkiye, especially for these economies in particular, access to affordable and long-term climate finance is essential,” stated Bayraktar.

The global energy transition would be difficult to achieve if financing remained expensive or inaccessible in countries where energy demand and investment needs are growing rapidly.

Bayraktar also said climate change was increasing the need to strengthen electricity infrastructure, citing more frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, floods, storms, droughts and wildfires.

He said climate finance should support both emissions reductions and measures to improve the resilience of electricity systems.

“The infrastructure we build today must be designed for the climate conditions of the coming decades, not simply those of the past,” Bayraktar said, adding that this would require significant financial resources.