Global Energy Power Shift: Renewables Take the Throne, but Who’s Being Left in the Dust?
The global energy game has changed, and fossil fuels are losing.
According to two groundbreaking UN-backed reports, the clean energy revolution has crossed a historic threshold. In 2024, over 92% of new electricity capacity worldwide came from renewable sources. Solar, wind, and hydropower aren’t just alternatives, they’re now the dominant force reshaping the planet’s power grid.
The numbers speak volumes. Renewable energy investments topped $2 trillion last year, dwarfing fossil fuel spending by a staggering $800 billion margin. Even more striking, onshore wind and solar power are now up to 53% and 41% cheaper, respectively, than the cheapest fossil fuels.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres didn’t mince words: “The fossil fuel age is flailing and failing.” He hailed the transition as the “dawn of a new energy era,” one defined by clean, abundant, and increasingly affordable electricity.
But amid the euphoria, a warning echoes: this revolution isn’t happening fast enough—and it’s not reaching everyone.
While nations like China, India, and Brazil are spearheading the transition China alone has embedded green energy into a tenth of its economy Africa remains nearly invisible in this success story. Despite its vast untapped solar potential and urgent electrification needs, the continent accounted for less than 2% of new green energy installations last year.
“The Global South must be empowered to generate its own electricity without being shackled by debt,” warned Bahamian climate expert Adelle Thomas. Her plea highlights the injustice of a green future built without equal access.
Ironically, fossil fuels still receive nearly nine times more government subsidies than renewables—$620 billion compared to just $70 billion. Guterres condemned this disparity as economic sabotage. “Countries clinging to fossil fuels aren’t protecting their economies—they’re driving up costs and locking themselves into stranded assets.”
Even as clean tech soars, fossil fuel production remains on the rise, driven by soaring energy demands in developing nations, energy-hungry AI data centers, and the global need for cooling in an increasingly hotter world.
Those same AI data centers, Guterres warned, could consume as much energy by 2030 as all of Japan does today. He’s now calling on Big Tech to power every data center with renewables by the end of the decade.
“The future is being built in the cloud,” he declared. “It must be powered by the sun, the wind and the promise of a better world.”
But if that promise is to mean anything, it must be inclusive. The renewable era can’t afford to be a luxury for the few must be a right for all.
