11 November 2026, Antalya, Türkiye| At COP31 in Antalya, addressing government ministers and representatives from across the world, Mr Ben Backwell, CEO of the Global Wind Energy Council and Chair of the Global Renewables Alliance, welcomed the "extraordinary" TAFF Mutirão roadmap to transition the world away from fossil fuels, an initiative spearheaded by the Government of Brazil and United Nations during the event of the COP30 Presidency Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Energy Systems in a Just, Orderly and Equitable Manner.
Representing the global renewables industry, Mr Backwell spoke alongside UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Brazil's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Joao Paulo Capobianco, former US Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry, and *current and* former COP presidents including André Corrêa do Lago, Alok Sharma and Laurent Fabius.
"Thank you for keeping fossil fuel phaseout in the centre of the climate debate where it needs to be," said Mr Backwell, hailing the initiative brought forward by Brazil which creates a pathway for governments to develop voluntary national plans for accelerating the adoption of renewable energy.
"We were very happy to feed into this remarkable process," commented Mr Backwell. With record annual installations and momentum building across wind and other renewable energy sectors, he said industry is ready to work closely with governments in delivering on the action agenda at COP31 and beyond.
At the same time, he warned that: "The transition is very uneven in terms of where we're installing renewables. This needs be distributed more evenly across the world.” He highlighted the importance of "greater collaboration" between the public and private sectors and the need to address barriers to electrification including a lack of investment in grids and infrastructure.
In his remarks, UN Secretary-General Guterres called on governments to build concrete national roadmaps inspired by the TAFF Mutirão initiative, which draws from the Brazilian Indigenous concept of mutirão, where neighbours and communities pool their efforts for a shared goal. "Let us leave Antalya with clear next steps to advance this roadmap," he said.
"An accelerated transition away from fossil fuels is fundamental to limiting the overshoot of global temperatures about 1.5 degrees, and building economies that are cleaner, more secure and less exposed to shocks," added Secretary-General Guterres.
Joao Paulo Capobianco, Brazil's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, urged countries to develop their own actions plans as he described the TAFF Mutirão roadmap as "a collective effort to protect workers and communities, expand access to affordable finance and help one another to move faster."
During the plenary session, John Kerry, who served as former U.S. Secretary of State and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, also welcomed the roadmap initiative and called on governments to "find the courage to speak the truth to powerful interests which seem intent on ignoring even basic science."
"We know now that clean power is cheaper than fossil power. That argument is over, except among those people who keep wanting to hold on to the past," he said.
Find out more about GWEC and GRA at COP31: www.gwec.net/cop31