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Oil and Gas ‘Running Out of Road’ as Renewables Cover 92.5% of New Power Demand
The global switch to renewable energy has passed a “positive tipping point” where solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread, according to two United Nations reports released Tuesday.
Last year, 74% of the growth in electricity generated worldwide was from wind, solar, and other green sources, according to the UN’s multiagency report, called Seizing the Moment of Opportunity. It found that 92.5% of all new electricity capacity added to the grid worldwide in that time period came from renewables, The Associated Press reports. Sales of electric vehicles are up from 500,000 in 2015 to more than 17 million in 2024.
The three cheapest electricity sources globally last year were onshore wind, solar panels, and new hydropower, according to an energy cost report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Solar power now is 41% cheaper and wind power is 53% cheaper globally than the lowest-cost fossil fuel, the reports said. Fossil fuels, the chief cause of climate change, include coal, oil, and natural gas.
“The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in Tuesday morning speech unveiling the reports. “We are in the dawn of a new energy era. An era where cheap, clean, abundant energy powers a world rich in economic opportunity.”
“Just follow the money,” Guterres said, quoting the reports that showed last year there was $2 trillion in investment in green energy, which is about $800 billion more than in fossil fuels. Renewables investment is on track to hit $2.2 trillion this year, twice as much as financiers will pour into fossil fuels.
The net result is that fossil fuels are “running out of road” as renewable energy costs continue to fall, Guterres added. “Clean energy is no longer a promise, it’s a fact.”
A Gigawatt of Solar Every 15 Hours
Veteran climate campaigner and Third Act co-founder Bill McKibben struck a similar tone in a post earlier this month for The New Yorker.
“People are now putting up a gigawatt’s worth of solar panels, the rough equivalent of the power generated by one coal-fired plant, every 15 hours,” McKibben wrote. “Solar power is now growing faster than any power source in history, and it is closely followed by wind power.”
The overall trend creates an opportunity for a “deep reordering of the Earth’s power systems, in every sense of the word ‘power’, offering a plausible check to not only the climate crisis but to autocracy,” McKibben added. “Instead of relying on scattered deposits of fossil fuel—the control of which has largely defined geopolitics for more than a century—we are moving rapidly toward a reliance on diffuse but ubiquitous sources of supply.”
With the sun and wind available everywhere, “this energy is impossible to hoard and difficult to fight wars over,” he said. “If you’re interested in abundance, the sun beams tens of thousands of times more energy at the Earth than we currently need. Paradigm shifts like this don’t come along often: the Industrial Revolution, the computer revolution. But, when they do, they change the world in profound and unpredictable ways.”
Still Not Fast Enough
But for now, United Nations officials said the switch to renewable energy, while remarkable compared to 10 years ago, is not happening fast enough, AP writes.
Global renewables growth has been mostly in developed countries such as China—where one-tenth of the economy is tied up in green energy—and countries such as India and Brazil.
Africa represented less than 2% of the new green energy capacity installed last year despite having great electrification needs, the reports said. UN officials blamed the high cost of capital for the Global South.
“The Global South must be empowered to generate its own electricity without adding to already unsustainable level of debts,” said Bahamian climate scientist Adelle Thomas of the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council. Thomas, who did not work on the reports, added that they debunk the myth that clean energy cannot compete with fossil fuels, instead showing a clean energy future is not just possible but likely inevitable.
The UN reports are “right on the money,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who also wasn’t part of the studies. He said the economic tipping point leads to a cycle that keeps driving renewable costs down and makes fossil fuel power less and less desirable.
Renewables are booming, even though fossil fuels receive nearly nine times the government consumption subsidies, Guterres and the reports said. In 2023, global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $620 billion, compared to $70 billion for renewables, the UN report said.
Using a different methodology, the International Monetary Fund put global fossil fuel subsidies at about US$7 trillion in 2023, for an eye-watering $13 million per minute, every minute of every day of the year.
Fossil Demand Still Growing
But just as renewables are booming, fossil fuel production globally is still increasing, instead of going down in response. United Nations officials said that’s because power demand is increasing overall, spurred by developing countries, artificial intelligence data centres, and the need for cooling in an ever warmer world.
“A typical AI data centre eats up as much electricity as 100,000 homes,” Guterres said. “By 2030, data centres could consume as much electricity as all of Japan does today.”
So Guterres called on the world’s major tech firms to power data centres completely with renewables by decade’s end.
In the United States, solar and wind power had been growing at a rate of 12.3% per year from 2018 to 2023, the IRENA report said. But since Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration has withdrawn the nation from the landmark Paris climate accord and cut many federal renewable energy programs, with a renewed emphasis on fossil fuels.
Without naming the United States out loud, Guterres warned nations hanging on to fossil fuels that they are heading down a dangerous path that will make them poorer, not richer.
“Countries that cling to fossil fuels are not protecting their economies, they sabotaging them,” he said. “Driving up costs. Undermining competitiveness. Locking in stranded assets.”
Renewables are the smart way to go for energy security, Guterres added. With renewables, he said, “there are no price spikes for sunlight. No embargoes on wind.”
David Waskow of the World Resources Institute said the message of problems mixed with optimism makes sense. He compared Tuesday’s assessment to climbing a mountain and taking time halfway through to look down and appreciate how far you’ve come. But a look up shows the trek is getting steeper.
Guterres said he understands how young people could have a sense of “doom and gloom,” and regrets what his generation has left them—but he maintained that all is not lost.
“This is not inevitable. We have the tools, the instruments, the capacity to change course,” he said. “There are reasons to be hopeful.”
The main body of this story was published by The Associated Press and republished by The Canadian Press on July 22, 2025.
