Europe is sweltering under record temperatures that have killed over 1,300 people according to the World Health Organisation, though the final toll is expected to be far grimmer. The summer of 2022 saw more than 60,000 heat-related deaths across the continent. This past week has been significantly hotter still.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution consortium found that nearly half of Europe's 850 largest cities are experiencing their worst heat stress in recorded history. Temperatures have soared 5 to 12 degrees Celsius above seasonal averages. The heatwave has fractured Germany's Autobahn, buckled train lines, degraded power infrastructure, and forced the closure of nuclear reactors due to cooling regulations.
The underlying culprit is atmospheric greenhouse gases driving up baseline global temperatures. Without human-caused climate change, the recent daytime temperatures would have been impossible during the 1976 European heatwave and 10 times less likely than the 2003 spike.
Yet a peculiar counternarrative is unfolding in renewable energy markets, where an unlikely catalyst is accelerating transformation. When Trump moved to attack Iran alongside Israel, triggering a blockade of roughly 20 percent of global oil and gas supply through the Strait of Hormuz, it forced nations to reconsider their dependence on fossil fuels. Energy security concerns have sparked fresh investment in clean power and electrification across multiple continents.
The shift was already underway before the geopolitical shock. For the first time last year, renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydro overtook coal as the leading electricity source, collectively providing a third of global generation. Adding nuclear, which produces zero emissions, brings non-fossil generation to 42 percent.
Solar energy has exploded at an astonishing pace. It expanded 30 percent in 2025, marking the single largest annual increase of any electricity source in history. Battery storage grew 66 percent from a lower base. The reasons are straightforward: solar is cheap, increasingly consumer-friendly, and requires no fuel shipments from distant suppliers.
Costs have plummeted. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres noted that solar and battery prices have fallen 90 and 95 percent respectively over the past 15 years, while wind energy costs dropped 70 percent. This makes renewables the cheapest and fastest option for new electricity generation in most regions.
The transformation is visible globally. Pakistan, one of the world's top 20 emitting nations, has increased solar capacity more than tenfold in four years as natural gas became unreliable and expensive. Solar now tops 25 percent of Pakistan's electricity mix, prompting the government to cancel liquified natural gas imports.
In the European Union, solar and wind provided about 30 percent of electricity in 2025, up from 19 percent in 2021. According to the thinktank Ember, renewable energy now comprises 48 percent of total EU generation, while fossil fuels have fallen to 29 percent. The 2022 energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine accelerated the pivot away from Russian gas.
Even in the United States, where Trump and Republicans have undermined renewable investments and coal has rebounded, solar and battery economics are winning. They accounted for 91 percent of new generation capacity in the first quarter of this year. May marked the first month when solar generated more electricity than coal.
China operates on a different scale. It consumes more electricity than the US, Europe, and India combined and is deploying far more renewable capacity than the rest of the globe. Coal provided 80 percent of China's power 20 years ago; that share has fallen to 50 percent. Many new coal plants sit idle more often than operational.
Electric vehicles are transforming transportation. In China, two-thirds of cars and at least 25 percent of heavy vehicles sold this year are expected to be EVs. Globally, the EV share is expected to reach 27 percent, up from 9 percent five years ago. India's Delhi government announced this week that new fossil-powered small trucks and three-wheelers will be banned from next year, with scooters and motorbikes banned in two years. Ethiopia has already prohibited imports of new combustion engine vehicles.
These gains do not change the scale of the challenge. Global emissions have yet to begin declining. Much new clean energy is powering expanded demand rather than displacing coal, gas, and oil. The fossil fuel industry remains formidable opposition.
The shift in solar, transport, and storage has sparked a new focus in climate strategy: electrification. It sits at the center of plans for this year's UN climate summit and a major campaign called Electrify Now backed by governments, businesses, researchers, and campaigners. Electricity can already meet about 75 percent of global energy needs using existing technology. It is more efficient and healthier than burning fuel. As costs continue to fall, clean sources are becoming the default choice purely because they are the cheapest option available.
Author James Rodriguez: "The irony is thick: a blundering foreign policy move may have done more for climate momentum than a decade of environmental summits, even as Europe burns."
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