Energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The US Energy Information Agency reports that California’s fossil gas use is steadily declining. In the first half of 2025, fossil gas use was down a whopping 18% compared with the same period in 2020, to 45.5 billion kilowatt hours (BKWh). Even just in 2025, California reduced fossil gas usage […]

China

Pakistan now gets 25% of its Electricity from Solar, Plans Solar Panel factory

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Pakistan’s solar power switch continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In 2023, solar was the fifth largest source of electricity generation in the South Asian country of 240 million. Then Pakistani villagers and townspeople imported 17 gigawatts worth of solar panels in 2024, catapulting the country into one of […]

Climate Crisis

A Path Away from Fossil Fuels already Exists, COP30 or No

Foreign Policy in Focus

Existing plans to triple renewable energy, double efficiency, and slash methane — coupled with real regulations like the EU’s — offer a way forward. By Daphne Wysham, Trina Chiemi | November 28, 2025 ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – It appeared to be a grim déjà vu when the final gavel dropped in Belem, […]

Climate Crisis

Have we Reached Peak Fossil Fuels? Wind & Solar met all New Energy Demand in Q1-Q3 ’25

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Richard Black and other analysts at the Ember energy consultancy find that all new electricity demand in the first three quarters of 2025 was met by solar and wind, mainly solar. That statistic requires us to conclude that there was no growth in fossil fuels globally during that period. Ember […]

Donald Trump

Ozymandias on the Potomac: Energy Policy and the Politics of American Decline

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – At the dawning of the British Empire in 1818, the romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley penned a memorable sonnet freighted with foreboding about the inevitable decline of all empires, whether in ancient Egypt or then-modern Britain. In Shelly’s stanzas, a traveler in Egypt comes across the ruins of a once-monumental statue, […]

Climate Crisis

India Plans 2.45 Gig Solar Park + 5 GWh Battery in Rajasthan, so why drag its Feet at COP30?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The paradox of India’s unhelpful stance at COP30, which has gone into extra innings over the obstacles the “like-minded developing countries” have placed in the way of a renewed pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, lies in New Delhi’s impressive investments in renewables. That is, even the right wing […]

Climate Crisis

Global Battle Royale at COP30 between Fossil Fuel Producers and Green Energy Advocates

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Fiona Harvey at The Guardian reports from the COP30 climate conference that a bloc comprising such countries as India, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and Bolivia (under its new right wing President Rodrigo Paz), calling themselves “like-minded developing countries,” are attempting to deep-six the pledge made at COP28 in Dubai […]

Climate Crisis

Trump Luxuriates in Golden Ballroom Plans as Americans Scrimp By

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – When I began TomDispatch in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan, believe me, the world did not look good. But I guarantee you one thing: if you had told me then that, almost a quarter of a century later, the president of the United States would […]

Green Energy

Pacific Nations aim to go 100% Renewables, saving 25% of GDP

The Conversation

By Wesley Morgan, UNSW Sydney and Scott Hamilton, Monash University (The Conversation) – Picture dusk falling somewhere in the Solomon Islands. A fisher’s skiff glides home using a whisper-quiet electric outboard motor. In the Cook Islands, a big battery steadies the island grid. In Papua New Guinea’s highlands, solar kits bring electric light to homes […]