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In our new newsletter Power & Progress, we analyze how elected leaders are impacting global climate action, and the economic and societal power dynamics at play. How does power impede and propel progress? How do movements for progress build and use power? Vea la versión en español de “Poder y Progreso.”
The Global Energy Transition Is Unstoppable
The good news about the climate crisis is that we already have the solutions we need to address it. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and battery storage are key to replacing fossil fuel sources and cutting CO2 emissions.
While the global green energy transition is not happening fast enough, the world has been making progress; year over year, the cost of renewable energy is falling rapidly and adoption rates surging.
Although President Donald Trump declared a “national energy emergency” on his first day in office and promised to unleash American energy dominance, his administration’s policies leave increasingly cost efficient renewable energy sources and technology — wind, solar, and battery storage — out of the energy equation.
“The world is in a very different place to what it was when Trump was last in power,” Dr. Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Policy and co-lead of World Weather Attribution, told Forbes. “The global move to renewable energy is now happening at an unprecedented pace. Nothing the US government can do will change the simple fact that renewable energy is cheaper and more reliable than oil, gas and coal. Fossil fuels are a thing of the past. The world is moving on.”
THE PROGRESS
During the first half of 2024, wind and solar accounted for 30% of energy generation in the EU, beating fossil fuels (27%). In the UK, wind power (29%) out-generated gas (25%) becoming the number one electricity source, and the country retired its last remaining coal plant in September. In the US, wind and solar provided a record 17% of US electricity from January through November, surpassing coal (15%), for the first time ever.
In China, new analysis from two think tanks heralds the “unprecedented pace” of clean energy production. But at the same time, local governments have continued to greenlight new coal plants, despite a national pledge to reach peak carbon emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060. “Experts fear those targets will remain out of reach as long as it keeps approving new coal production and prioritising coal-fired power,” writes Helen Davidson in the Guardian. Still, China is the world leader on renewable energy, “far outpacing the rest of the world,” writes Isabel Hinton at Yale 360.
The International Energy Agency, the leading authority on energy and climate trends, releases its World Energy Outlook (WEO) every fall, offering analysis of climate and energy trends and projections for the future. The most recent WEO, published in October, “shows solar overtaking nuclear, wind, hydro, gas and, finally, coal, to become the world’s single-largest source of electricity by 2033,” reports Carbon Brief.
Quotables: “In energy history, we’ve witnessed the Age of Coal and the Age of Oil – and we’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity.” – Fatih Birol, executive director, International Energy Agency
A new report out this month shows that the US had “record-breaking growth in renewable energy capacity last year,” writes Dharna Noor at the Guardian. According to the Cleanview report, the US added 48.2 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage capacity in 2024. A single gigawatt is enough to power 750,000 homes.
Highlights
- “The US added 47% more clean energy capacity in 2024 than in 2023.”
- “95% of capacity added in 2024 was carbon-free; solar and batteries made up 83% of new capacity.”
- “Annual solar capacity additions rose by 65% in 2024.”
THE POWER
The Trump administration is doing everything it can to kill the green energy transition, but most experts agree that he’s fighting a losing battle. “Trump couldn’t kill the green transition during his first term, and he can’t kill it this time, either,” writes Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, in The Syndicate.
The most Trump can likely do is slow down the transition, which is still bad news for the climate. The US is the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG) and motor gasoline, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases historically, and the second-largest emitter currently (after China). Before the election, Carbon Brief released an analysis that Trump’s policies “could lead to an additional 4bn tonnes of emissions by 2030 [that] would cause global climate damages worth more than $900bn.”
STORY IDEAS
- Green energy is a win-win-win for the planet, for cheap, reliable energy, and for economic growth. Talk to climate scientists, energy experts, and economists about how renewable energy checks all three boxes for the environment, low cost energy bills, and competitiveness in global markets.
- Identify how renewables are changing the global energy picture and report on it. Stories illustrating the energy transition around the world abound. Consider subscribing to newsletters that highlight green energy progress, including Carbon Brief, Canary Media, CleanTechnica, Climate Forward, HeatMap, and BNEF (Bloomberg New Energy Finance).
- IRA-funded projects on the chopping block. Talk to local officials and business leaders about new green energy projects in your state. How has the local economy benefited from the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the Biden administration? What concerns do local officials have about the Trump administration’s pledge to roll back funds for government funded green energy projects? Grist’s interactive map can help you find projects in your community.
- Talk to your audience. Interview people who work in a clean job or have made the transition in their own lives and find out how it worked out for them. Groups like Rewiring America can help you find people in your community with personal stories.
PROGRESS CHART
Detailed data on the growth in China’s solar installations in the first 11 months of 2023 is shown in the figure below. (An estimated 200GW was added across the country during 2023 as a whole, more than doubling from the record of 87GW set in 2022.)
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