{"id":713263,"date":"2026-01-22T14:50:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/713263\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T14:50:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:50:23","slug":"clean-tech-powers-on-despite-policy-wobbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/713263\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean tech powers on despite policy wobbles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual World Economic Forum is underway in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, providing a snowy backdrop for leaders and CEOs to opine on international affairs, including close to 65 heads of state and government. On Wednesday afternoon, US President Donald Trump gave a speech, dialling down the rhetoric somewhat on his bid to acquire Greenland, saying he would not use force to take it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite geopolitics grabbing the limelight, there are panels addressing issues including electric vehicles, energy security and climate policy. Keep up with top takeaways from those discussions and other climate news from Davos in our bulletin, which we\u2019ll update throughout the day.<\/p>\n

In energy transition\u2019s \u201cmessy phase\u201d, climate policy falters but clean tech marches on<\/p>\n

Politicians may be struggling to free themselves from the clutches of fossil fuel interests, but that won\u2019t slam the brakes on the march of clean tech and renewables worldwide, former US Vice-President and longtime climate advocate Al Gore said at Davos on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Moderating one of the first panels on day two in an almost empty room, he made a stab at answering the question posed by the World Economic Forum: \u201cHow do we avoid a climate recession?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Gore said he sees \u201ca climate policy recession, but not a recession in the energy transition\u201d. That, he explained, is because policy is controlled by governments \u2013 \u201cand too many governments are now, unfortunately, controlled by special interests\u201d, namely the fossil fuel industry which is \u201csignificantly better at capturing politicians than at capturing emissions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The result has been \u201cschizophrenic\u201d policy on addressing climate change in some countries, including in the US, he said, with periods of slamming on the brakes and \u201cgoing back to the dirty fossil fuels\u201d to satisfy the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the real world, however, the advantages of renewable energy have become obvious, as have the consequences of the climate crisis, he added, listing a litany of recent impacts.<\/p>\n

On the technology front, Gore pointed out that in 2025, of all new electricity generation installed worldwide, 93% was renewables, and \u201cthe only thing coming down faster in price than solar panels is utility-scale batteries, because the production is doubling every year\u201d. \u201cSo we don\u2019t have a recession in the movement toward this energy transition, in my opinion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Financial Times reported<\/a> that Gore was among those who heckled and booed the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at a dinner in Davos on Tuesday night. Lutnick made dismissive comments about Europe and said the world should pursue coal not renewables.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s panel, entrepreneur Zhang Lei, founder and CEO of Envision, which develops technology for clean energy systems and AI-powered energy digital platforms, said there may be some swings in climate policy but \u201cthe fundamental physics is actually improving\u201d.<\/p>\n

He pointed to an 80% drop in the price of energy storage in the last three years, which he said opens up a lot of opportunities to increase the penetration of wind and solar. That, he added, is exactly what is needed to meet the upsurge in electricity demand driven by the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), describing renewables as \u201cinfinite and inexpensive energy resources\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fossil fuels, by contrast, are \u201cfinite\u201d and therefore not up to the job of powering an AI-based future, with electricity supply expected to increase by 10 times in the next 15 years. Renewables, however, are competitive and approaching \u201czero marginal cost\u201d, he noted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so lucky to have renewable energy ready\u201d to take advantage of \u201cgreat prosperity\u201d driven by AI, Zhang added, noting China\u2019s pivotal role in providing the necessary clean tech to much of the world.<\/p>\n

Investment by China is making the renewable energy transition \u201cirreversible\u201d, argued Elizabeth Thurbon, professor of international political economy and director of the Green Energy Statecraft Project at the University of New South Wales.<\/p>\n

China will stay on this path, she added, because the government understands that the energy transition \u201cis a massive national security multiplier\u201d by boosting economic security, energy security, environmental security, social security through jobs and geo-strategic security.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Globally, however, she warned that the transition is \u201cin a really messy, messy phase\u201d, due largely to poor governance, especially across a lot of Western countries.<\/p>\n

Carsten Schneider, Germany\u2019s environment minister, argued that the European Union, for one, has not taken its foot off the climate policy pedal, agreeing a new emissions reduction goal of 90% by 2040 last December. But that was a hard-fought win, amid pressure from some coal-reliant Eastern European countries to soften the target.<\/p>\n

\n

EU\u2019s new climate target lines up multibillion-dollar boost for carbon markets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, in a separate panel, Andrew Forrest, executive chairman and founder of Australian mining company Fortescue, advised politicians and business people not to waver in their commitment to the energy transition<\/a> \u2013 from an economic perspective, if nothing else.<\/p>\n

He spoke of his company\u2019s plan to save up to a billion dollars per year in operating costs by removing over a billion litres of diesel from its supply chains by 2030, replacing the dirty fuel used by trucks, trains and ships with renewable energy and batteries. This will improve Fortescue\u2019s efficiency and competitiveness, and cut pollution, Forrest added, enabling it to outperform its peers.<\/p>\n

He appealed to fellow business and political leaders to follow economic sense, urging them not to turn away from renewables in 2026 \u201cbecause the winds of politics blew your values over\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nCampaigners dispute Trump\u2019s North Sea oil claims<\/p>\n

During a lengthy headline speech on Wednesday afternoon, US President Donald Trump said that the UK has high energy prices because it is not producing enough oil and gas from the North Sea.<\/p>\n

He said the region\u2019s oil and gas fields are not depleted and have 500 years left, adding that the British government doesn\u2019t let anyone drill and makes it \u201cimpossible for the oil companies to go\u201d because \u201cthey take 92% of the revenues\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, Friends of the Earth\u2019s Mike Childs said UK energy bills are high because Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring. The UK\u2019s electricity bills are based largely<\/a> on on the price of gas. \u201cWithout the UK\u2019s large-scale wind power, wholesale energy prices could have been up to a third higher in 2024,\u201d Childs said.<\/p>\n

On the details of Trump\u2019s speech, Greenpeace UK campaigner Lily-Rose Ellis said taxes on oil and gas drillers \u201care a lot lower than he thinks\u201d. According to the government\u2019s North Sea Transition Authority<\/a>, the current overall tax rate on profits (not income) from UK oil and gas extraction is 78% not 92%.<\/p>\n

Uplift director Tessa Khan said Trump\u2019s claim that there are 500 years of reserves in the North Sea is \u201cnonsense\u201d. She said the UK has burned most of its gas \u201cand what\u2019s left of the oil is increasingly difficult and expensive to extract\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course Donald Trump wants us to remain dependent on fossil fuels \u2013 and on US gas specifically \u2013 but that\u2019s not in the UK\u2019s national interest,\u201d Khan added. \u201cRenewable energy, which we\u2019re lucky to have in abundance, is the only way to reduce our exposure to energy price shocks and mean we are not at the mercy of bad actors like [Russia\u2019s President] Putin or the whims of Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Trump to pull US out of UN climate convention and climate science body<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Senator Coons: US aid spending will mostly survive Trump cuts<\/p>\n

US Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat, told another panel on Wednesday afternoon that US aid spending in the current <\/strong>fiscal year \u2013 which began in October 2025 \u2013 will be only a few billion dollars lower than in the previous year, despite President Donald Trump\u2019s attempts to reduce it far more drastically.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives has proposed $50 billion of spending on development aid and international diplomacy in fiscal 2026, which Coons noted was \u201conly a few billion different\u201d from 2025. Coons said the Senate would pass this bill next week and Trump would sign it.<\/p>\n

He said cuts to USAID\u2019s budget at the start of the Trump presidency \u201ccreated the mistaken impression that the United States has walked away\u201d. Back then, Climate Home News reported on how the move could severely undermine support<\/a> for programmes to tackle climate change in the Global South. But nearly a year on, Coons insisted: \u201cWe are still engaged in development assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to analysis<\/a> of the House\u2019s bill by the Center for Global Development, overall appropriations for 2026 are 16% less than last year, while spending on global health programmes, humanitarian aid and multilateral development banks will not decline much. The bill also includes $150 million for the Global Environment Facility \u2013 which Trump had wanted to defund.<\/p>\n

Big corporate polluters\u2019 emissions rise in 2024<\/p>\n

The NGO Influence Map has published its latest annual ranking<\/a> of the greenhouse gas emissions of the world\u2019s most polluting companies, using data from 2024.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Carbon Majors database tracked 166 oil, gas, coal and cement producers and found that their total emissions increased 0.8% in 2024 compared with the previous year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It shows that the trend has continued for state-owned fossil fuel companies \u2013 which account for 54% of emissions \u2013 to increase their emissions, while those of private corporations\u00a0plateau.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nInfluence Map\u2019s chart shows that the emissions of state-controlled entities (orange) are rising while investor-owned companies (blue) have stayed largely flat.<\/p>\n

The top five state-owned emitters in 2024 were Saudi Aramco, Coal India, CHN Energy, National Iranian Oil Co., and Russia\u2019s Gazprom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The data update said emissions are increasingly concentrated among a smaller number of companies, with just 32 companies responsible for over half of global fossil CO\u2082 emissions in 2024, down from 38 five years earlier.<\/p>\n

Influence Map noted that 17 of the top 20 emitting companies in 2024 were controlled by countries that opposed the COP30 climate summit launching work on a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarbon majors are clinging on to outdated, polluting products and continue to mislead the public on the urgent real-world consequences of their actions. But they cannot hold us back for long,\u201d said Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief and co-founder of Global Optimism.<\/p>\n

She added that the Carbon Majors data provides a tool for \u201cthe growing majority who are coming together to champion science-backed solutions and accountability\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dataset has been used for lawsuits against polluting companies like Chevron, BP and RWE<\/a> across Europe and in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The annual World Economic Forum is underway in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, providing a snowy backdrop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[16108,21882,5352,728,1242,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-713263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-cleantech","9":"tag-davos","10":"tag-energy-transition","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-renewables","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115939313236334257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}