Ember is an vitality suppose tank registered in England and Wales. It makes no secret of its intention “to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy.” However its 36-page report is brief on polemic and lengthy on extremely technical information, which is why, although the report was lined in mainstream media, it’d fall between the cracks of our local weather conversations.
Right here’s the upshot: Utilizing credible methodology, Ember compares world vitality demand and consumption through the first half of 2025 with the primary half of 2024. Probably the most outstanding discovering is that the expansion in wind and solar energy technology exceeded the expansion in international demand by 109% .
Throughout the identical interval, coal technology fell by 0.6%, whereas photo voltaic and wind grew by 7.7%, resulting in this discovering: “As a result, renewables’ share of global electricity rose to 34.3% (from 32.7%), while coal’s share fell to 33.1% (from 34.2%).”
In different phrases, for the primary time, electrical vitality derived from renewables exceeded the quantity derived from coal. Ember calls this a “crucial turning point,” the “beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth.”
At least, the report signifies that renewable vitality is a reputable various to fossil fuels, moderately than a mere liberal, feel-good, green-new-deal pipedream.
Progress in photo voltaic vitality technology was significantly sturdy. At the least seven nations generated 20% or extra of their vitality from photo voltaic through the first half of 2025, with Hungary main the way in which (30%) and Greece and the Netherlands not far behind (25%).
The Ember report pays particular consideration to the massive vitality gamers — China, India, the E.U. and the U.S. — which collectively accounted for 63% of world vitality demand and 64% of CO2 emissions through the first half of 2025.
The share of fossil gas technology and associated emissions decreased in China and India, as the event of renewable vitality sources outpaced the expansion of vitality demand. China was chargeable for 55% of the rise in international photo voltaic technology and 82% of the expansion in wind vitality. The numbers for India are comparable.
Maybe you’ll be able to see the place that is going: Within the U.S., electrical energy demand elevated by 3.6% through the first six months of 2025, however in contrast to in a lot of the world, photo voltaic and wind development offset solely 65% of the rise. The hole was crammed by elevated coal technology.
In reality, final month President Donald Trump introduced to the assembled United Nations that local weather change is the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.” Local weather scientists are “stupid people,” and inexperienced vitality initiatives are a “scam.”
The local weather difficulty is unusual: It needs to be all about science and engineering. However for many individuals — possibly most — the prospect of local weather change deeply includes their psyches and their feelings, particularly their fears and hopes. Thus, regardless of the science, persons are usually inclined towards undue optimism concerning the local weather or towards skepticism and even outright denial.
In different phrases, as a result of we’ve a tough time pondering rationally about local weather change, we regularly ignore or deny the science.
This ingredient of local weather change all the time jogs my memory of what Albert Einstein mentioned concerning the “unleashed power of the atom”: It “changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
