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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A type of geoengineering technology designed to oxidize atmospheric methane is not effective enough to reduce the impact of emissions, a new study has revealed.

Atmospheric scientists at the University of Utah were not convinced of a recent proposal to put hydrogen peroxide into the atmosphere as a way to oxidize methane emissions and improve air quality. 

To test whether this method could work, the scientists used GEOS-Chem, a global chemical-transport 3D model, to model the use of aerosolized hydrogen peroxide, which would be sprayed from 50 600-meter-tall towers around North America.

Researchers modeled what would happen if each tower sprayed 612 grams of the hydrogen peroxide per second for 10 hours daily over the course of one year, a scenario based on a real proposal by an unnamed company.

However, the models showed that this scenario did not make much of a dent in the methane levels, and the technology could even lead to higher amounts of particulate matter pollution in areas that already had poor winter air quality. The scientists published their findings in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

“This proposed solution just won’t remove any meaningful amount of methane from the atmosphere. It’s not going to solve global warming. At most, we found 50 towers could reduce 0.01% of annual anthropogenic methane emissions,” Jessica Haskins, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at University of Utah, said in a statement. “You’d need about 352,000 of them to remove 50% of anthropogenic methane. It’s an insane number. And if you did 50 high-emission towers, you’d still need about 43,000.”

As Haskins explained, the hydrogen peroxide would break down in the presence of sunlight and produce hydroxyl radicals (OH), which speed up the conversion of methane into carbon dioxide. While carbon dioxide emissions are also a concern for climate change, methane has a greater warming potential of up to 84 times compared to carbon dioxide, according to the European Commission.

But in the environment, the researchers explained that the hydroxyl radicals tend to react more to common double-bonded compounds found in the atmosphere, rather than the single-bonded methane molecules.

“OH doesn’t react fast with methane,” Haskins explained. “It’s reacting with so many other things.”

According to the study, multiple companies and organizations are exploring geoengineering to oxidize methane and other greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through iron-salt aerosols and hydrogen peroxide.

However, more research is being done to reveal how these potential technologies could actually impact the atmosphere and climate change.

A separate study, pre-printed in December 2024, also used modeling to explore how using tropospheric hydroxyl radicals (OH) or chlorine (Cl) in the atmosphere could decrease greenhouse gas emissions, including methane. The author concluded that using hydrogen peroxide was likely not feasible based on the amount needed to actually decrease atmospheric methane levels. Further, the research showed that all geoengineering methods analyzed in the study led to an increase in particulate matter pollution, which even exceeded air quality standards in some locations.

“We could buy ourselves about 50 years and avoid some of the immediate impacts of climate change if we did this, but no one had actually previously done any side-effects studies to see what was going to happen,” Haskins said. “This is very first paper to assess any air quality side effects of such geoengineering solutions.”

The study authors are not completely discrediting these technologies, but they do warn that more research and consideration is necessary before actually executing these methods.

“There’s potential that future research could show that the air quality impacts of placing these towers close to methane point sources is minimal if they’re activated at certain times of the year, and far from large population centers,” said Alfred Mayhew, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher with the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy at University of Utah. “If that’s the case, then this technology (or similar approaches) could play a very small role in combatting warming, but it’s clear from our work that the air-quality side effects should be placed as a central consideration for any proposed real-world implementation of technology like this.”

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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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One of the many executive orders President Donald Trump signed on his first day back in office temporarily stopped the United States’ sale of offshore wind leases in federal waters.

It also paused permits, approvals and loans for offshore and onshore wind projects.

“On day one, the Trump administration is putting dirty fossil fuels front and center while delaying progress on renewable energy projects. This is as harmful as it is wrong headed. Putting the brakes on homegrown wind energy is not only bad for clean air, public health, and national security — it cuts short a promising source of additional power at a time when our electricity grid needs it most,” said Kit Kennedy, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s managing director for power, in a press release from NRDC.

Wind energy is currently the largest renewable energy source in the United States, providing more than 10 percent of the country’s power. Ninety-nine percent of onshore wind projects are on private lands and cannot be stopped by federal action.

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa are the top four states for wind power production. More than 131,000 Americans are employed by the wind industry.

The U.S. Secretary of the Interior will review practices for wind leasing and permitting for federal lands and waters, reported The Associated Press. The order states that the assessment will consider factors such as wind projects’ impacts on wildlife, the effect subsidies have on the wind industry’s viability and the economic costs of intermittent electricity generation.

When asked about committing to continuing already issued offshore wind leases during recent confirmation hearings, Doug Burgum, whom Trump selected to be the next interior secretary, said projects that are already established by law and those that “make sense” will continue.

“I’m not familiar with every project that the Interior has underway, but I’ll certainly be taking a look at all of those, and if they make sense and they’re already in law, then they’ll continue,” Burgum said during the hearings, as The Washington Post reported.

According to the American Clean Power Association, 73 gigawatts of offshore capacity are currently under development, enough to provide wind-generated power for 30 million homes, reported The Associated Press.

Trump’s executive order also temporarily halts the development of Magic Valley Energy’s Lava Ridge Wind Project, located in Idaho. A scaled-down version of the wind farm was approved by the U.S. government in December after local groups opposed it due to its proximity to a World War II site where thousands of Japanese Americans were incarcerated.

“We think the EO is likely to significantly curtail the U.S. offshore wind industry over at least the next four years,” said Timothy Fox, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, in an email to The Washington Post. “The EO could have negative implications beyond Trump’s term because project developers may be wary of investing in a sector that faces demonstrable high election risk.”

CEO of the American Clean Power Association Jason Grumet warned that the order could have a detrimental effect on states like Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa that supported Trump in the last election.

“States voting for President Trump are eight of the top ten states in terms of reliance on wind power with many depending on wind for a significant share of their electricity use,” Grumet said, as The Washington Post reported.

It is not clear how much authority Trump has to shut down wind projects, especially those that already have federal permits, and the executive order will likely face legal challenges, reported The Associated Press.

Onshore wind is one of the least expensive power sources, with an average cost of roughly $31 per megawatt hour for new projects. Estimates from the Energy Information Administration say new natural gas plants will likely cost almost $43 per megawatt hour.

During his campaign, Trump promised to stop offshore wind and ramp up production of fossil fuels, with a plan to make U.S. energy the cheapest in the world.

“This is bad for American workers, as well. The growing U.S. wind industry and its manufacturing supply chain are creating quality jobs and growing local economies along our coasts and across the Midwest. This announcement put those investments — and the jobs that go with them — at mortal risk,” Kennedy said in the press release.

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