The climate movement is weakening, but renewable energies are growing stronger
Five years ago, 65 percent of respondents in Germany considered climate policy to be “very important”; today, that figure is only 54 percent.
The climate movement also attracts only a fraction of the people who took to the streets in 2020 during the mass protests. Greta Thunberg is symbolic of this. She had led the global climate movement to its peak with her “school strike for climate,” but today she only makes international headlines as a Palestine activist.
But the former mass movement was not unsuccessful. The fact that renewable energies are growing rapidly worldwide today is also thanks to her. Both the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris and the think tank Ember have just calculated that renewable energies worldwide are supplying more electricity than coal for the first time in history. According to their findings, global electricity production from solar power plants increased by 31 percent in six months, a new record. The sun is winning, coal is losing.
Neither climate change denier Donald Trump in the US nor German gas politician Katherina Reiche can stop this positive global development. Renewable energies are now growing faster than global electricity consumption. Photovoltaics is the main driver of the energy transition. More than half of the new solar installations are currently being connected to the grid in China alone, followed by the US, Europe, and India.
Coal is losing, the climate is benefiting
Wind and solar power are increasingly competing with climate-damaging coal. The two major renewable energy sources account for a global share of 34 percent, while the share of coal has fallen to 33 percent. Sixty percent of all growth in renewable energies is currently being achieved in China. The country is likely to achieve its ambitious expansion targets for wind and solar power as early as 2030. Previously, this target was set for 2035.
The US is falling behind
Not only in China and India, but also in countries such as Kenya, Algeria, and Pakistan, renewables are growing faster than ever imagined. Even in the US—despite Trump. However, the IEA has halved its expansion forecast for the US since Trump’s second term in office. Nevertheless, the IEA’s global outlook remains positive.
By 2030, the output of renewables is expected to double again globally. However, since the climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, the goal has been to triple it. Politicians like Trump and Reiche are likely to torpedo this original goal, though. The US is falling behind, China is taking the lead and will thus be doing tomorrow’s energy business.
We are currently experiencing a global solar revolution. The sun is winning, the solar age is beginning. This is good news for the global energy transition and for the future of coming generations.
- EMBER Report (pdf) “Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025” – Solar and wind outpaced demand growth in the first half of 2025, as renewables overtook coal’s share in the global electricity mix.
Source
Franz Alt 2025| Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
