For the first time, solar power surpassed coal as a source of electricity in the European Union (EU) last year, according to a new report by thinktank Ember released on Thursday.

Ember’s European Electricity Review 2025 found that solar generated 11 percent of the bloc’s electricity, while coal-fired power plants supplied 10 percent. Meanwhile, the use of fossil gas dropped to 16 percent of the energy mix, falling for the fifth straight year.

“This is a milestone,” said co-author of the report Beatrice Petrovich, senior energy analyst at Ember, as The Guardian reported. “Coal is the oldest way of producing electricity, but also the dirtiest. Solar is the rising star.”

The burning of coal for power in the EU saw its peak in 2003 and has since plummeted by 68 percent.

Along with coal’s decline has come the rise of clean energy, with solar and wind making up 29 percent of the EU’s electricity generation last year.

“The transition of the EU electricity sector maintained momentum in 2024, despite challenging political and economic conditions,” Ember’s executive summary of the report said. “Another year of coal and gas decline – the fifth year in a row for gas – cut EU power sector emissions to below half their 2007 peak and further reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels.”

Solar stayed on top as the fastest growing source of power in the EU in 2024. Wind was the second largest source of power, below nuclear energy and above gas.

The report attributed solar’s growth to a record number of new panels, even though there was less sunshine in the region than in 2023.

“It’s good news that the increase in solar build is actually translating to a reduction in fossil fuel burn,” said Jenny Chase, BloombergNEF solar analyst, who did not participate in the research, as reported by The Guardian.

According to the report, coal use dropped in all but one of the 17 nations that continue to use it, with the fuel becoming “marginal or absent in most systems.”

Germany and Poland are the top two coal users in the EU, with coal making up 17 percent of Germany’s electricity output and eight percent in Poland’s in 2024.

Fossil gas underwent a “structural decline” last year, with its use falling in 14 out of the 26 nations that use it.

“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy. At the start of the European Green Deal in 2019, few thought the EU’s energy transition could be where it is today; wind and solar are pushing coal to the margins and forcing gas into structural decline,” said Dr. Chris Rosslowe, senior energy analyst at Ember, in the executive summary. “While the EU’s electricity transition has moved faster than anyone expected in the last five years, further progress cannot be taken for granted. Delivery needs to be accelerated particularly in the wind sector, which has faced unique challenges and a widening delivery gap. However, the achievements of the past five years should instill confidence that, with continued drive and commitment, challenges can be overcome and a more secure energy future be achieved.”

The EU experienced a small increase in the demand for electricity following two years of significant decline caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Guardian reported. To combat this, an energy-saving plan was introduced in the EU, which also found new suppliers of fossil fuels and increased the pace of its clean energy shift.

“Wind and solar are growing in all large economies, but coal has continued to grow in China and natural gas has grown in the U.S.,” said Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin-Madison energy researcher and co-author of a report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as reported by The Guardian. “Europe is taking advantage of the full swath of affordability, security, and clean air benefits that renewables provide.”

The report found that the EU was on course to meet its 400 gigawatt (GW) target of installed solar capacity this year. Last year it reached 338 GW, with Ember saying its target of 750 GW by 2030 would be “within reach” if its current growth rate was maintained.

“The significant progress has brought benefits beyond reducing emissions. Structural growth in wind and solar power has reduced the EU’s fossil import bill and the bloc’s vulnerability to imported gas. While the progress made in the first half of this decade is impressive, an acceleration is needed between now and 2030,” Ember said in its executive summary.

The authors of the report called for forms of “clean flexibility” like smart meters and batteries that can help align renewable energy supply — which fluctuates — with demand.

“[S]olar is growing in every EU country, while coal is becoming increasingly marginal. More than half of EU countries either have no coal power or a share below 5% in their power mix. Accelerated clean flexibility and smart electrification are needed to sustain solar growth,” the report said.

Ember pointed out that, while wind power additions were poised to grow, they were not enough to meet EU targets. The thinktank said closing the gap would require continued political support and policy implementation, with the additions rate between now and 2030 needing to be more than twice that of recent years.

Ember added that, by accelerating its electricity transition, the EU would “enhance energy security” while bringing down energy costs for consumers.

“The EU is striding closer towards a clean energy future powered by homegrown wind and solar. This new energy system will reduce the bloc’s vulnerability to fossil price shocks, tackle the climate crisis and deliver affordable energy for its households and companies. Timely policy action that sustains wind and solar growth, accelerates the deployment of clean flexibility and promotes electrification, will help to secure the future of EU competitiveness,” Petrovich said in the executive summary.

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China broke its own records for the installation of new solar and wind power last year, with installed capacity increasing by 18 and 45 percent, respectively, according to new data released by the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) on Tuesday.

Solar and wind power surpassed 1.4 billion kilowatts (KW) in 2024, reported China Daily, adding to the country’s reputation as a world leader in renewable energy development.

Belinda Schäpe, a Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) China policy analyst, said that while the country continued to expand its coal capacity, “this massive scale of renewable power additions has positive implications for emissions in 2025,” Recharge News reported.

“Renewables may reach the turning point where they can meet all of the electricity demand growth, which would make it more likely for China to achieve its emissions peak and structural decline from there,” Schäpe said.

Solar’s installed capacity soared to 890 million KW last year — a 45.2 percent increase from 2023 — while wind-generated power capacity reached 520 million KW, an 18 percent climb, NEA said.

President Xi Jinping in 2020 set a target of a minimum of 1,200 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar capacity by the end of the decade, which was met almost six years early, NEA data from August revealed, as reported by Electrek.

China has built nearly twice the wind and solar capacity as all other countries in the world combined. It is also the biggest producer of electricity on the planet, and power consumption jumped significantly to 9,852 terawatt hours — up 6.8 percent — in 2024.

While China still uses coal, coal power permits fell by 83 percent during the first half of fiscal year 2024, compared with the same period a year earlier, CREA said. There were also no new approvals of coal-based steelmaking projects during that time.

“The country is committed to further promoting the growth of renewable energy and actively advancing the transformation of its energy mix from a reliance on coal to a more balanced structure,” said Lu Ruquan, head of China National Petroleum Corp Economics and Technology Research Institute, as China Daily reported.

China’s energy transition last year benefited from substantial investments, such as $83.7 billion put toward power grid infrastructure — a 15.3 percent increase from the previous year.

“These investments facilitated the construction of large-scale renewable energy projects, the modernization of grid systems to handle the variability of renewable sources, and the deployment of advanced storage technologies. The expanded grid infrastructure played a critical role in connecting remote renewable energy hubs to urban demand centers,” China Daily said.

Lin Boquiant, head of Xiamen University’s China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy, said the government’s long-term policies, such as subsidies, tax incentives and renewable energy quotas, have incentivized investment in clean energy. Meanwhile, the country’s push to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and be carbon-neutral by 2060 has added urgency.

Lin said that innovations in wind turbine design and the efficiency of solar panels have brought down costs while improving the reliability of clean energy systems.

“It will be critical for the government to capitalise on the momentum in the renewables sector. As expected, renewables additions were much higher than the government had targeted. Instead of lowballing these targets, the government should put forward strong targets for the renewables expansion for the next decade, alongside a detailed plan for phasing down coal power,” Schäpe said, as reported by Recharge News.

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On the second day of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, European leaders spoke out against President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement, saying they would remain firmly committed to the global climate accord.

The first day of Trump’s second term on Monday included a rash of executive orders, which included departures from other United Nations climate convention agreements and deals, putting a stop to climate finance support by the U.S. for developing countries, reported Politico.

Referring to the Paris climate accord, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that “Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming,” as The Associated Press reported.

Von der Leyen insisted that the European Union will stick with the landmark climate agreement.

“The Paris Agreement continues to be the best hope for all humanity,” von der Leyen said.

The global agreement aims to limit long-term global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or at least “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.

Speaking at a panel ahead of November’s COP30 climate talks in Belém, Brazil, Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the “door remains open” for the U.S.

“The world is undergoing an energy transition that is unstoppable. Last year alone, over $2 trillion was invested in the transition (to clean energy). And that compares to one trillion in fossil fuels,” Stiell said, as reported by The Associated Press.

Stiell said the world is experiencing “crisis fatigue,” but added that, despite changes in the political landscape, “the science behind climate hasn’t changed. The impacts actually have changed in that they’re simply getting worse and worse.”

In response to Trump’s decision, Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo, during a session at Davos discussing Europe’s clean energy transition, expressed the importance of unity in tackling the climate crisis.

“[T]he world is full of uncertainty after yesterday even more, and maybe tomorrow there might be even more uncertainty. Let’s please, as Europeans within the European Union, not add to the uncertainty by creating ambiguity on our goals,” De Croo said.

Business leaders emphasized the economic benefits of remaining committed to the targets set out in the Paris Agreement.

“For us, who have been on the bumpy train ride for a couple of years, we are discovering year by year how we actually not only can succeed to deliver to the Paris Agreement but actually how it benefits business,” said IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin, as The Associated Press reported.

Trump’s exit from the Paris Agreement marks the second time he has pulled the country from the world’s biggest climate deal, a process that takes about a year to complete.

Von der Leyen said recent disastrous events in the U.S., including the Los Angeles wildfires, were evidence that “all continents will have to speed up the transition toward net zero,” as reported by Politico.

Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, said it was a “truly unfortunate development that the world’s largest economy, and one of our closest allies in the fight against climate change, is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.”

“Despite this setback, we remain committed to working with the U.S. and our international partners to address the pressing issue of climate change,” Hoekstra said.

Global South activists and climate scientists were critical of Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S.

“Globally, Trump’s decision undermines the collective fight against climate change at a time when unity and urgency are more critical than ever. The most tragic consequences, however, will be felt in developing countries,” said Harjeet Singh, global engagement director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, as The Associated Press reported. “These vulnerable nations and communities, which have contributed the least to global emissions, will bear the brunt of intensifying floods, rising seas, and crippling droughts.”

China also expressed concern about the U.S. exiting the accord.

“Climate change is a common challenge,” said Guo Jiakun, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. “No country can be outside of it. No country can be immune to it.”

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Alaska will resume the “barbaric” practice of shooting bears and wolves from helicopters to reduce their numbers with the hope that it will boost moose and caribou herds.

The renewed program would permit hunters to kill as many as 80 percent of the natural predators across 2,000 acres of state lands, reported The Guardian.

“Alaska’s practice of indiscriminately strafing predators is both inhumane and inane,” said Rick Steiner, an ecologist with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), in a press release from PEER. “There is no scientific evidence that this carnage will boost populations of moose and caribou, and there is a growing body of evidence that it disrupts a healthy predator/prey balance in the wild.”

Environmental groups opposed the practice, which they said has more to do with increasing caribou populations as trophy animals to be killed by hunters than it does with science-based wildlife management, The Guardian reported.

The state’s report on the program followed the Biden administration’s upholding of rules set during President Donald Trump’s first term that allowed other inhumane hunting practices, such as killing cubs in their dens, on Alaska federal lands.

On some state lands in Alaska, “intensive management” practices allow game agents to indiscriminately kill any black bear, brown bear or wolf.

In 2023, almost 100 bears were killed by helicopter, including 20 cubs.

The newest plan would allow 80 percent of wolves to be killed by aerial hunters until their numbers are reduced to 35; cutting down the black bear population by 80 percent to 700 individuals; and bringing the number of brown bears down 60 percent to a population of 375.

Critics of the state’s predator control methods said the state admitted in the report that it did not know the full impact of the practices on bear populations, since estimates of brown bear numbers were not known before the kills were allowed. Over half of brown bears killed last year were adult females, which raises additional concerns about the ability of the population to rebound.

“With a desire to avoid delaying the initiation of bear removal; the Department did not have an opportunity to estimate brown bear densities within the IM areas prior to removals,” the state’s report from October 2024 said.

“The goal of the project was to increase caribou calf survival by removing all bears and wolves from the calving grounds during the spring period when calves are highly susceptible to predation,” the report went on to say. “Data does not exist to evaluate whether the goal was achieved.”

Alaska officials refused to allow photographs to be taken of the killings, to subject the state’s program to federal scientific review or to permit independent observers to witness the slaughter, reported The Guardian.

The mass killing of wildlife in close proximity to national parks leads to major declines in predator numbers on federal lands, PEER said in the press release.

“Due to state predator control practices on adjacent lands, the ability of visitors to see intact wolf packs inside Denali National Park, one of the state’s major tourist draws, has plummeted,” PEER explained.

The National Park Service ended a study of wolf behavior in Yukon-Charley National Preserve that lasted more than 20 years because the same types of practices led to the collapse of the resident wolf population.

“Alaska’s predator control policies are cruel and the epitome of penny wise and pound foolish. The amount of tourist dollars from people seeking to view these predators in the wild dwarfs any incremental increase in hunting fee revenue the state hopes to realize,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of PEER, whose organization is circulating a national petition in protest of the most recent aerial gunning operation, in the press release. “Unfortunately, given its prior track record, we do not expect a Trump administration to protect wildlife on federal lands from state predator removal operations no matter how devastating or barbaric.”

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Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose faster than ever last year, according to scientists who say the rise is “incompatible” with goals set by the Paris Agreement, the United Kingdom’s Met Office said, as reported by BBC News.

Carbon levels are currently over 50 percent higher than before the rampant burning of fossil fuels by humans began.

“This is obviously bad news,” said professor Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the Met Office and University of Exeter, whose team analyzed the rapidly rising rate of carbon, as The Guardian reported. “But even if it looks like we won’t meet the ambitious Paris goal of 1.5C, it is still worth making every effort to limit the rise. 1.5C is not a cliff-edge after which all is lost. There are lots of solutions already available without any new inventions. This must be extra motivation to work even harder.”

According to the most recent data from Hawaii’s Mauna Loa observatory — where measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide have been recorded for over 60 years — the rate at which carbon is increasing has begun to outpace the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s pathways to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, reported Carbon Brief.

The record pace of carbon emissions has been fueled by fossil fuels and other contributors like wildfires and drought, BBC News reported. Agricultural land use changes are also a major factor.

Carbon Brief reported that natural carbon sinks were weaker last year, which allowed Earth’s atmosphere to retain more carbon. Some of this was connected with El Niño conditions toward the start of 2024. El Niño leads to hotter and drier conditions in the tropics and shifts weather patterns across the globe.

These conditions inhibit the growth of vegetation, releasing more carbon from decay and wildfires and causing less carbon to be removed by land-based ecosystems.

The global average temperature set a new record last year, heightening the impacts of extreme weather, wildfires, heat waves and floods caused by the climate crisis.

“Who pays the price for climate destruction around the globe? Not the fossil fuel industry pocketing profits and taxpayer subsidies as their products wreak havoc,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday in an address to the UN General Assembly, as reported by The Guardian. “Every day people suffer: with their lives and livelihoods; with higher insurance premiums, volatile energy bills, and higher food prices.”

Last year’s carbon dioxide emissions of 3.6 parts per million (ppm) were twice the level consistent with the path to net zero and 1.5 degrees Celsius, Betts said. They were also higher than the Met Office’s projection of 2.8 ppm. The office’s 2025 prediction is 2.3 ppm, as the forecast of cooler temperatures brought by La Niña will help conditions that encourage increased vegetation growth.

“Today, governments around the globe spend nine times more making fossil fuels cheaper than they do on making clean energy more affordable for consumers,” Guterres said. “We must tear down these walls.”

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